Pacifigorgia Bayer, 1951

Rhipidigorgia (partial) Valenciennes, 1855: 13. Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857: 173. Horn, 1860: 233.

Rhipidogorgia (partial). Verrill, 1864: 32. Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864: 20. Verrill, 1869: 424.

Litigorgia (partial) + Eugorgia (partial) Verrill, 1868: 414.

Leptogorgia (partial) Verrill, 1869: 420. Verrill, 1870: 548.

Gorgonia . Bielschowsky, 1918: 32. Kükenthal, 1924: 338. Bielschowsky, 1929: 141. Stiasny, 1941: 268. Stiasny, 1943:74.

Pacifigorgia Bayer, 1951: 94 . Breedy, 2001. Breedy & Guzmán, 2002:

Type species. Gorgonia stenobrochis Valenciennes, 1846, by original designation (Bayer 1951: 94).

Description. Colonies flabellate, branched in one or several parallel planes. Branches regularly anastomosed to form a network of meshes of various dimensions. Calyces absent or raised only slightly above surface of the coenenchyme. Coenenchymal sclerites basically of three kinds: long spindles with acute ends and several whorls of warts; long (up to 0.2 mm) or short (around 0.06 mm) blunt spindles with several whorls of warts; and capstans ornamented with different levels of complexity. Anthocodial sclerites flattened rods with smooth, scalloped, indented or lobed margins.

Remarks. Of the 27 species of Pacifigorgia known for the eastern Pacific, 13 have been observed in the Pacific of Panama.

Distribution. Eastern Pacific, from southern California to Chile and the Galápagos Islands; Atlantic coast, only one species ( Pacifigorgia elegans) from Trinidad to Brazil (Bayer 1951), and observed in Venezuela (pers. obs.).