Stylasteridae Gray, 1847

Schejter, L., Genzano, G., Pérez, C. D., Acuña, F., Cordeiro, R. T. S., Silva, R. A., Garese, A. & Bremec, C. S., 2020, Checklist of Benthic Cnidaria in the SW Atlantic Ocean (54 ºS- 56 ºS), Zootaxa 4878 (2), pp. 201-239 : 209

Family Stylasteridae Gray, 1847

Material collected: BBB 2016: St. 5; St. 9; St. 11; St. 12; St. 13; St. 16; St. 18; St. 21; St. 23; St. 25; St. 28; St. 29; St. 30; St. 33; St. 34; St. 35; St. 36; St. 40.

Distribution: Seventeen stylasterid species are known to inhabit usually deep waters of the Argentinian shelf and slopes. The majority of them have been also recorded in the Burdwood bank region, but also other subantarctic waters. Specific information could be obtained from Cairns (1983) and Bernal et al. (2018).

Remarks: Living and dead fragments of stylasterid colonies were collected. The material was not identified until species level yet. However, preliminary results showed that many collected specimens belong to the genus Errina , Errinopsis and Sporadopora . Epibiotic organisms were frequently attached to these colonies, as also noted by Schejter et al. (2017a, 2020). Moreover, they were conspicuous habitat-forming species of the animal forests recorded in the area ( Schejter et al. 2020).