Bebryce cinerea Deichmann, 1936

Devictor, Susan T. & Morton, Steve L., 2010, Identification guide to the shallow water (0 - 200 m) octocorals of the South Atlantic Bight 2599, Zootaxa 2599 (1), pp. 1-62 : 37

Bebryce cinerea Deichmann, 1936

( Figure 34 )

Bebryce cinerea Deichmann, 1936:126 ; Plate 8 fig. 5; Plate 10 figs.1–8.

Material examined. SERTC 2856, 76 m, off Charleston, SC, August 7, 2003 .

Remarks. The examined specimen of Bebryce cinerea displays a branching, planar growth form, approximately 67 mm in height with stems reaching 2–3 mm width. The colony was yellow in life and yellow-brown when preserved in ethanol. The calyces are cylindrical and reach lengths of 2 mm with 1 mm widths and are more or less crowded along two sides of the branches in a loosely alternating manner. Most of the polyps are partly contracted, but are apparently retractile ( Deichmann 1936).

The outer coenenchyme contains small, cup-shaped rosette sclerites with warty bases, and are oriented with the concavity facing away from the axis. The inner coenenchyme contains some rod-like spindles and warty stellate plates with a central knob or boss. The knobbed plates vary in shape from 4-6 armed stars to multi-lobed amoeboid masses. The calyx contains numerous echinulate rods projecting upward around the rim, which are only visible when the polyps are retracted. These rods have one tuberculated, flattened, slightly lobed end; the opposite end is bluntly rounded, and occasionally flattened and/or bifurcated at the tip. The anthocodiae contain curved, elongate rods in a collaret and points arrangement. All sclerites are colorless.

The specimen examined for this work is the only record north of the Bahamas on the east coast of the Unites States and was collected, attached to a rock, by a manned submersible.

Atlantic distribution: South Carolina , 76 m ; Gulf of Mexico , 69–274 m ; Bahamas, 4–329 m ; Caribbean 51–549 m ; Panama, 64-128 m ; Venezuela, 77–86 m ( Deichmann, 1936; NMNH collections; SERTC collection).

Figures

FIGURE 34. Bebryce cinerea (S2856); A, sclerites; a–d) cup sclerites from outer coenenchyme; e–h) stellate plates from inner coenenchyme; i, j) rods from calyx; k, l) curved spindles from polyp (scale bar a–d = 0.01 mm; e–j = 0.05 mm; k, l = 0.1 mm); B, preserved colony (scale bar = 1 cm); C, calyx, showing rods.