Neospongodes Kükenthal, 1903

Castro, C. B., Medeiros, M. S. & Loiola, L. L., 2010, Octocorallia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) from Brazilian reefs, Journal of Natural History 44 (13 - 14), pp. 763-827 : 773

Genus Neospongodes Kükenthal, 1903

Diagnosis

Upright colonies, extremely flexible, ramified, with several axes and proximal stalk ( Figure 2B,B′ ). Polyps isolated, sparse, or in bundles, set up in slender branchlets, with supporting bundle of sclerites ( Figure 4 ). Canal walls in interior of stem with numerous sclerites forming irregular false axis [emended from Kükenthal (1903: 273– 274) to detail “arborescent habitus”].

Type species

Neospongodes atlantica Kükenthal, 1903 , by subsequent designation ( Deichmann 1936).

Figures

Figure 2. Carijoa riisei (Duchassaing and Michelotti, 1860) (MNRJ 00153): (A) colony, (A′) branch. Neospongodes atlantica Kükenthal, 1903 (MNRJ 00335): (B) colony, (B′) branch. Heterogorgia uatumani Castro, 1990 (MNRJ 00504): (C) colony, (C′) branch. Scale bars: A–C, 2 cm;A′–C′, 5 mm.

Figure 4. Sclerites of Neospongodes atlantica Kükenthal, 1903 (MNRJ 00334): (A, without scale bar) scheme of sclerites arrangement in the anthocodia; (B) tentacles; (C) column; (D) outer layer of coenenchyme (branch); (E) coenenchymal mound; (F, G) outer layer of coenenchyme (trunk); (H) wall between longitudinal canals; (I) axis.