Lyrocteis sp. indet.

Fassbender, Nico, Stefanoudis, Paris V, Filander, Zoleka Nontlantla, Gendron, Gilberte, Mah, Christopher L, Mattio, Lydiane, Mortimer, Jeanne A, Moura, Carlos J, Samaai, Toufiek, Samimi-Namin, Kaveh, Wagner, Daniel, Walton, Rowana & Woodall, Lucy C, 2021, Reef benthos of Seychelles - A field guide, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 65970-65970 : 65970

Lyrocteis sp. indet.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Taxon: scientificName: Lyrocteis; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Ctenophora; class: Tentaculata; order: Platyctenida; family: Lyroctenidae; genus: Lyrocteis; scientificNameAuthorship: Komai, 1941; Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; country: Seychelles; locality: Aldabra N 1, Aldabra W 1 ; minimumDepthInMeters: 120 m; maximumDepthInMeters: 250.8 m; locationRemarks: First Descent : Seychelles Expedition ; Identification : identifiedBy: Nico Fassbender , Carlos Moura , Paris Stefanoudis ; dateIdentified: 2019, 2020; identificationRemarks: identified only from imagery; Event : samplingProtocol: Submersible OR Remotely Operated Vehicle OR SCUBA; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Human observation

Notes

While most ctenophores are present in the water column, ctenophores belonging to the order Platyctenida spend their lives on the seafloor. Those of the genus Lyrocteis are typically lyre-shaped and may present a great array of colours in a single species. Currently, this genus only comprises two species: Lyrocteis flavopallidus Robilliard & Dayton, 1972 and Lyrocteis imperatoris Komai, 1941, the first originally described from the Antarctic, the latter described and observed multiple times in the Pacific Ocean. Recently, an unknown species of Lyrocteis that resembles the present observations from Seychelles was recorded in canyons off northern KwaZulu Natal, in the Western Indian Ocean ( Gibbons et al. 2021). However, it was not possible to identify these ctenophores to species level from underwater images alone without further microscopic examination (Fig. 113).