Heliania racemosa ( Wright & Studer, 1889 )

Ramvilas, Ghosh, Alderslade, Philip & Ranjeet, Kutty, 2023, The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice, Zootaxa 5236 (1), pp. 1-124 : 92-93

Heliania racemosa ( Wright & Studer, 1889)

Juncella racemosa Wright & Studer, 1889: 159–160 , pl. 34, fig. 11 ( Hyalonema ground, Japan); Thomson & Simpson 1909: 268–269 (Andamans); Simpson, 1910: 54–56, figs. 20–23 (Andmans).

Junceella miniacea Thomson & Henderson, 1906: 81–82 , pl. 5, figs. 7, 12.

? Heliania spinescens Gray, 1859: 481 .

Opinion: There is evidence this species occurs in the region.

Justification:

Literature analysis: This species was collected from deep water off Japan and originally described by Wright and Studer as Juncella racemosa . In their1906 monograph, Thomson & Henderson described a new species from the Andamans, Junceella miniacea , failing to see that it was very similar to Juncella racemosa because of the very stylised sclerite images presented by Wright and Studer. Later, Thomson & Simpson (1909) claimed Junceella miniacea was the same as Juncella racemosa after having examined Wright & Studer’s type specimen of the latter, and synonymised the two. Simpson (1910) assigned a specimen from the Andamans to this species and Nutting (1910d: 21) recorded the species from Indonesia but gave no confirming illustrations. The only reasonable sclerite figures for the species are those of Simpson (1910: fig. 23), which show small differences from the sclerites figured by Bayer & Grasshoff (1994: fig. 2) for Heliania spinescens , which may be a senior synonym of Heliani racemosa .

Rao & Devi (2003) listed the species under the original name but erroneously cited the author as Valenciennes, and Venkataraman et al. (2004) listed Junceella miniacea .