Paracalyptrophora Kinoshita, 1908

Cairns, Stephen D., 2018, Deep-Water Octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from the Galapagos and Cocos Islands. Part 1: Suborder Calcaxonia, ZooKeys 729, pp. 1-46 : 15-16

Genus Paracalyptrophora Kinoshita, 1908

Type species.

Calyptrophora kerberti Versluys, 1906, by subsequent designation ( Cairns and Bayer 2004).

Diagnosis.

Colonies dichotomously branched in one plane, sometimes in a lyrate pattern and sometimes as two parallel fans. Polyps arranged in whorls of up to eight, all polyps pointed downward. Each polyp covered with two (rarely three) unfused pairs of body wall scales. Articluar ridge present between basal and buccal (or medial) body wall scales. Distal margins of buccal scales smooth or spinose. A pair of infrabasal scales often present. Coenenchymal scales elongate, granular, and sometimes ridged.

Distribution.

Southwestern Pacific Ocean, Galapagos, Japan, Hawaii, North Atlantic, 150-1480 m deep.

Remarks.

The genus diagnosis is herein expanded to accommodate a species having three pairs of body wall scales, otherwise similar to the genus Narella . The character placing it in Paracalyptrophora is its possession of an articular ridge, which is found in this genus as well as Calyptrophora , and is considered more significant than the number of body wall scales.