Tanacetipathes hirta Gray 1857
Creators: name: Loiola, Livia L.
name: Castro, Clovis B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Cnidaria
Anthozoa
Antipatharia
Myriopathidae
Tanacetipathes
Tanacetipathes hirta

description: Tanacetipathes hirta (Gray, 1857)
Figure 6
Antipathes hirta Gray, 1857: 293; Opresko, 1972: 979 –984, tab. 2, Fig. 6; Warner, 1981: 151 –152, Figs. 5, 6 and 7.
Antipathes picea Pourtalès, 1880: 115, pl. 3, fígs. 9 and 29; Brook, 1889: 161 [Brook included this species in a group of species with uncertain generic identity].
Parantipathes hirta: Brook, 1889: 144, pl. 2, Fig. 11, pl. 11, Fig. 1 [Brook indicated uncertainty on the generic identity of this species.]; van Pesch, 1914: 20.
Tanacetipathes hirta: Opresko, 2001a: 358 –361; 2001b: 349.
Material examined. Brazil: off São Mateus, 19º42’ S, 039º26’ W, 239m, REVIZEE Bahia­2 Sta. #E0533 (MNRJ 4618: 2 colonies).
Diagnosis. Colony sparsely branched up to the 5th order, branches lateral, in angles of 45 ° –90 ° with the lower order branches (Fig. 6 a); axis and branches with 4–6 longitudinal rows of primary pinnules (depending on occurrence of second anterior), arranged biserially in alternate groups along the axis. Maximum length of primary anterior pinnules 14–24 mm (average 19.30 ± 3.56 mm), maximum length of posterior primary pinnules 19– 30 mm (average 23.10 ± 3.28 mm). Secondary pinnules up to 20 mm long (average maximum length 13.00 ± 3.91 mm), in a single series on the proximal half of the primaries’ abpolypar side, up to four secondaries per primary (Fig. 6 c). One to three tertiary pinnules, only on the abpolypar side of the proximal secondaries (Fig. 6 c). Quaternary pinnules rarely present. Spines smooth or with small ornamentations (both conditions found in the same specimen), conical, acute (Fig. 6 d–e); inclined and usually curved towards the distal end of the pinnules; 6–10 longitudinal rows around the axis (Fig. 6 f–h); polypar spines 0.07–0.18 mm tall (Fig. 6 d), abpolypar, 0.03–0.11 mm (Fig. 6 e); Polyps 0.7–0.8 mm in transverse diameter, in a single series along the pinnules; 10–12 per centimeter; tentacles 0.2 mm long; oral cone elevated 0.2 mm; mouth usually sagittally elongated (emended from Opresko, 1972).
Remarks. The Brazilian colonies of Tanacetipathes hirta (Gray, 1857) are similar to the specimens described by Opresko (1972) and Warner (1981). The only difference is that Opresko’s material has posterior primary pinnules 2 to 6 times longer than the anterior ones. Our material has anterior primaries with a length (5.0–24.0 mm, average 11.2 mm) closer to the length of the posterior (12.0–26.0 mm, average 18.5 mm) than in Opresko’s and Warner’s specimens. However, the branching pattern, the arrangement of the pinnules and subpinnules, and the characteristics of the spines indicate that these specimens belong to the same species. The diagnosis given by Opresko (1972) was herein emended to include variations observed in Brazilian colonies, especially the relative length of anterior and posterior primary pinnules. This represents the first record of T. hirta from the South Atlantic.
Distribution. Atlantic: Florida and Venezuela (Opresko, 1972); Caribbean (Brook, 1889; Opresko, 1972); Boca de Navios, NW Trinidad (Warner, 1981); Brazil: oceanic seamount off eastern Brazil (about 19 ° S—Fig. 1).
description: Published as part of Loiola, Livia L. & Castro, Clovis B., 2005, Tanacetipathes Opresko, 2001 (Cnidaria: Antipatharia: Myriopathidae) from Brazil, including two new species, pp. 1-31 in Zootaxa 1081 on pages 10-12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.170393