Tanacetipathes hirta ( Gray, 1857 )

Lima, Manuela M., Cordeiro, Ralf T. S. & Perez, Carlos D., 2019, Black Corals (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) from the Southwestern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4692 (1), pp. 1-67 : 33

Tanacetipathes hirta ( Gray, 1857)

Fig. 35

Antipathes hirta Gray, 1857: 293 ; Opresko, 1972: 979–984, tab 2, fig. 6; Warner, 1981: 151–152, figs. 5,6, 7; Edwards & Lubbock, 1983: 68.

Antipathes picea Pourtalès, 1880: 115 , pl. 3, figs. 9, 29; Brook 1889: 161.

Parantipathes hirta: Brook, 1889: 144 , pl. 2, fig 11, pl. 11, fig. 1; Van Pesch, 1914: 20.

Tanacetipathes hirta: Opresko, 2001 a: 358 –361; 2001b: 349; Loiola & Castro, 2005: 10–12, fig. 6; Castro et al., 2006: 163; Loiola, 2007: 257; Opresko, 2009: 362.

Type and type locality. BMNH (specimen not traced), Caribbean Sea, depth unknown .

Diagnosis. Colony sparsely branched up to the 5th order. The smaller branches are given off almost at right angles to the axis, but after a time arch upwards and take a subvertical direction. The branches are clothed with spirally arranged, short, slender pinnules, with 4–6 longitudinal rows of primary pinnules. Maximum length of primary anterior pinnules 14–24 mm (average 19.30 ± 3.56 mm), maximum length of posterior primary pinnules 19–30 mm (average 23.10 ± 3.28 mm). As in other forms, a pinnule, by increase in importance and the development of a secondary series of pinnules on all sides, becomes one of the smaller branchlets. Secondary pinnules up to 20 mm long (average maximum length 13.00 ± 3.91 mm). One to three tertiary pinnules, only on the abpolypar side of the proximal secondaries. The spines are of medium length, subcylindrical, and hooked upwards 6–10 longitudinal rows around the axis; polypar spines 0.07–0.18 mm tall, abpolypar, 0.03–0.11 mm; Polyps 0.7–0.8 mm in transverse diameter, in a single series along the pinnules; 10–12 per centimeter; tentacles 0.2 mm long (adapted from Brook, 1889 and Loiola & Castro, 2005).

Distribution. Off Florida and Venezuela ( Opresko, 1972), Caribbean Sea ( Gray, 1857; Brook, 1889; Opresko, 1972; Warner, 1981; Opresko, 2009), São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago ( Edwards & Lubbock, 1983), and off Brazil (fig. 35), near to 19° S ( Loiola & Castro, 2005; Castro et al., 2006); from 13 m (Smithsonian, USNM 5858, identified by D. M. Opresko; available <http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/iz/>) to 417 m depths ( Castro et al., 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 35. Geographic distribution of antipatharians species occurring in the Southwestern Atlantic not analyzed in the present work.