Calcigorgia beringi ( Nutting, 1912 )

Matsumoto, Asako K., Van Ofwegen, Leen P. & Bayer, Frederick M., 2019, A revision of the genus Calcigorgia (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Acanthogorgiidae) with the description of three new species, Zootaxa 4571 (1), pp. 1-27 : 3-6

Calcigorgia beringi ( Nutting, 1912)

Figures 1a , 2a , 3

Leptogorgia beringi Nutting, 1912: 95 (Alaska, USA).

? Leptogrgia beringi ; Bielschowsky 1918: 29 (Sagami Bay, Japan).

? Stenogorgia beringi ; Kükenthal 1919: 918, 1924: 348 ( Japan).

Material examined. Holotype USNM 30044 , SE of Agattu Island , Aleutian Islands , East Bering Sea , 52°01'N, 174°39'E, 1046 fathoms (1914 m), USFC Albatross Northwestern Pacific Expedition sta. 4780, Trawl—Agassiz beam, 8 ft, 7 June 1906, one nearly complete colony; other material examined by Dr. Bayer: USNM 1006240 , Great Sitkin Island , Andreanof Islands , Aleutian Islands , East Bering Sea , 52.00°N, 176.642°E, AB01-43 , depth 298 m, coll. Slear, J., 13 November 2000, dry; other material: USNM8848 , Chica Island , Akutan Pass, Fox Islands , Aleutian Islands , East Bering Sea , U.S. Coast Survey, coll. Dall, William Healey, dry; USNM 100806 , Amatignak Island , Delarof Islands , Aleutian Islands , East Bering Sea , 51°N, 179°W (cf. 51°15’26.40”N, 179°06’18.60”W), R/ V Pacific Knight, cruise 941, haul 161, 18 July 1994; USNM 1004602 , Bering Sea, 52°N, 177°W, AB01-45 , 26 February 2001, dry; USNM 1006249 , Bering Sea, AB01-4 , sample #AE114, coll. Slear, J., 4 December 2000, dry; USNM 1006324 , SE of Rat Islands , Aleutian Islands, East Bering Sea, 52.231°N, 175.159°E, depth to 182 m, R/ V Alaska Sea, AB 00-38, coll. Palmer, D., 26 January 2000, dry.

Description (after Nutting and the manuscript of Bayer). The holotype is 7.9 cm long and 7 cm wide ( Figure 2a ), a holdfast is lacking. The cylindrical polyps are situated all around the branches and are up to 1.75 mm long and 1 mm wide. The infolded tentacles contain small, flattened scales, up to 0.10 mm long, sparsely ornamented with simple, rounded projections ( Figure 3a ). These extend along the tentacle bases and intergrade with longer, more closely sculptured capstans, belted spindles and cylinders densely filling the polyps and coenenchyme, 0.05–0.15 mm long ( Figure 3b ). A few poorly developed clubs ( Figure 3b top) and crosses ( Figure 3c ) are also present, with similar size as the spindles and cylinders.

Distribution. Western Aleutian Islands, West Bering Sea. The type locality is actually SE of Agattu Island in the Near Island group of the western Aleutians, in the south edge of West Bering Sea, in 1914 m, rather than in the Bering Sea as stated by Nutting ( Figure 1a ). The only locality with western longitude, Amatignak Island is the southernmost point of Alaska, as well as the westernmost longitude of Alaska, located in the West Bering Sea.

Remarks (partly after the manuscript of Bayer). Nutting’s original description and photograph of the colony adequately show the appearance of the preserved colony, but a new photograph is presented ( Figure 2a ) for comparison with the other species considered here. Nutting’s description and illustration of the sclerites do not adequately characterize the species, and apparently misled Kükenthal (1924: 348), who wrote that the tubercles of the sclerites “in unregelmässigen Gürteln stehen” (placed in irregular whorls). Nutting was misled by the resemblance of its regularly belted spindles, which resemble the sclerites of many gorgonians. He observed (1912: 96) that it “has longer and more prominent calyces than any other species of the genus” but did not notice that the polyps are not retractile as always is the case in gorgoniids. It is not clear whether the material from Japan identified by Bielschowsky (1918) and Kükenthal (1919) really is this species; it was not examined by us. Although Kükenthal (1919, 1924) was correct in removing Leptogorgia beringi from the genus Leptogorgia , his assignment of the species to Stenogorgia (= Swiftia ) is untenable because the polyps of that genus are more or less completely retractile within distinct calyces owing to the presence of a neck-zone nearly or completely devoid of sclerites.

The original description of Nutting (1912) and later re-description of Bayer did not mention the presence of clubs in the polyps, which are however present in the type material, though poorly developed and in low numbers ( Figure 4d ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distribution map of Calcigorgia species: a. C. beringi (Δ) and C. gigantea. (D) b. C. gracilis sp. n.(-) and C. pacifica sp. n. (+), c. C. japonica (O) (including the type locality data from Dautova 2007) and C. matua (×) and C. matua from Dautova 2018 (•), d. C. spiculifera (Ɨ), type locality data from Broch 1935 (Ɨ), C. simushiri(= C. spiculifera) from Dautova, 2018 (D),? C. spiculifera in Dautova, 2018 (-).

FIGURE 2. a Calcigorgia beringi (Nutting, 1912), holotype USNM 30044 b C. matua Dautova 2018, ZIN 11664 c Calcigorgia gigantea sp. n. holotype USNM 1013069 d paratype USNM 1004615.

FIGURE 3. Calcigorgia beringi (Nutting, 1912), holotype USNM 30044 a tentacle scales b clubs, capstans, belted spindles and cylinders c crosses.

FIGURE 4. Calcigorgia gigantea sp. n. holotype USNM1013069 a, four club-like sclerites of polyps; b–c spindles of polyps; d spindles of coenenchyme.