Trimuricea africana Gordon, 1926

Samimi-Namin, Kaveh & Van Ofwegen, Leen P., 2016, A revision of Trimuricea Gordon, 1926 (Cnidaria: Octocorallia: Plexauridae) with the description of six new species, Zootaxa 4105 (1), pp. 1-44 : 5

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4105.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:621E2759-DDBF-4ADC-A1EC-3CA8F581C336
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6077931
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038E8793-9914-D96B-D4C0-9BEC8083335F
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Trimuricea africana Gordon, 1926
status

Treatment

Trimuricea africana Gordon, 1926 View in CoL

( Figs. 2–3 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3 , 4 View FIGURE 4 a)

Trimuricea africana Gordon, 1926: 519 View in CoL –520: Pl. I. figs. 5, 5a.

Material: BMNH 1933.5.3.102, holotype, Portuguese East Africa (= Mozambique), station 2.

Description (colony shape after Gordon 1926). The holotype is 9 cm high and 4.5 cm wide, branched in one plane and without anastomoses ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 a). The calyces are dome shaped, closely set together, and situated all around the branches. They are low, usually under 0.5 mm tall, with a diameter of up to 1 mm. Each polyp point has two pairs of triradiates, and there is one row of flattened spindles in the collaret.

The triradiates ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 a), along with curved, hockeystick or boot-shaped sclerites, or spindles ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 b) of the points are of similar length, 0.10–0.25 mm long; the upper ray of the triradiates and the upper part of the spindles is slightly echinulate for over a length up to 0.15 mm. Collaret spindles are 0.15–0.30 mm long ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 c). These polyp sclerites have very few tubercles. Tentacles have a few curved, or boot-shaped scales up to 0.10 mm long ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 d).

The calyces have thornscales, 0.10–0.30 mm long, with one or several smooth thorns up to 0.10 mm long ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 a–b).

The coenenchyme has both simple and unilaterally spinose spindles, 0.30–1 mm long, with simple or complex tubercles ( Figs. 2 View FIGURE 2 e, 3c).

Colour. The preserved colony is white, the sclerites are colourless. There is no information about the colour of the live colony and polyps.

Remarks. This species is unique in the genus Trimuricea having a colony without anastomoses and many unilateral spinose spindles in the coenenchyme. Trimuricea omanensis n. sp., and Trimuricea tuberculosa n. sp. also have some spindles in the coenenchyme that superficially resemble unilateral spinose spindles but their colony has many anastomoses and these spindles are far shorter than those in T. africana . This species has by far the longest spindles reported for the genus, up to 1 mm long.

Gordon (1926: Pl. 1 Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 ) depicted only part of the holotype, and her description of the polyp arrangement is incomplete as no mention at all is made about the presence of curved, hockeystick or boot-shaped sclerites in the points.