Muricella, Verrill, 1869

Lam, Katherine & Morton, Brian, 2008, Soft corals, sea fans, gorgonians (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) and black and wire corals (Ceriantipatharia: Antipatharia) from submarine caves in Hong Kong with a checklist of local species and a description of a new species of Paraminabea, Journal of Natural History 42 (9 - 12), pp. 749-780 : 760

Muricella sp.

( Figure 3C )

Description

Bright yellow tangled colony with thin, straight branches growing from a mother branch at right angles and in all directions. Branching starts low down the main stem and which loses its prominence. Terminal branchlets are short. Short,dome-shaped, monomorphic and non-retractile polyps are strengthened by blunt spindles with large warts arranged en chevron. Tentacle sclerites are small rods of, 0.6 mm. Coenenchyme sclerites are similar in shape to polyp sclerites but are larger (, 1.5 mm). Axis brown and flexible.

Distribution

Indo-Pacific including the Great Barrier Reef, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sabah, Hong Kong.

Remarks

This species is a new record for Hong Kong. One specimen (100 mm × 90 mm) was collected from Conic Island Cave.

Figures

Figure 3. Living specimens of octocorals belonging to the Acanthogorgiidae and Plexauridae. A, Acanthogorgia vegae; B, Anthogorgia divaricata; C, Muricella sp.; D, Astrogorgia sinensis and E, Menella indica. Scale bar52 cm.