Primnoa Lamouroux, 1812

Horvath, Elizabeth Anne, 2019, A review of gorgonian coral species (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) held in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History research collection: focus on species from Scleraxonia, Holaxonia, Calcaxonia - Part III: Suborder Holaxonia continued, and suborder Calcaxonia, ZooKeys 860, pp. 183-306 : 253

Genus Primnoa Lamouroux, 1812

Primnoa Lamouroux, 1812: 188; 1816: 442. Johnston 1847: 171. Gray 1870: 44. Studer 1878 [1879]: 642; 1887: 49. Wright and Studer 1889: xlviii. Versluys 1906: 84-85. Kinoshita 1908a: 42. Kükenthal 1915b: 143 [key to genus]; 1919: 357-360 [key to genus]; 1924: 265-266 [key to genus and species]. Bayer 1956: 220, fig. 157, 1; 1961: 294 [illustrated key to genus]; 1981: 937 [key to genus]. Bayer and Stefani 1988: 454 [key to genus]. Cairns and Bayer 2005: 226-228 [revision and key to species]. Cairns and Bayer 2009: 30, 41, 42. Cairns 2011: 19.

Lithoprimnoa Grube, 1861: 174-175.

Lithoprimnoa : Lithoprimnoa arctica Grube, 1861, by monotypy.

Type species.

Gorgonia lepadifera Linnaeus, 1767 (= Gorgonia resedaeformis Gunnerus, 1763), by monotypy.

Diagnosis.

Dichotomously branched, arborescent form with polyps not arranged in whorls but closely crowded on all sides of branches and branchlets; polyps distinctly curved downward toward axis. Marginal scales eight, operculum strongly developed. Tentacles bear small, thorny rods.

Remarks.

This genus, in the form of P. resedaeformis (Gunnerus, 1763), has been known since the earliest days of science (1605), and P. resedaeformis (Atlantic species to which the species discussed here is most closely related) is one of the most often reported deep-water octocorals. It is likely that the Atlantic Primnoa were some of the very first deep-water octocorals to be seen and acknowledged ( Cairns and Bayer 2005).

Genus, with accepted status in WoRMS Database (Cordeiro et al. 2019), mentioned here due to evidence provided by collection records examined (see Appendix 3: List of material examined), which showed a distributional range that includes the California Bight. Based on those collection records (NMNH), this is a deep-water form that has been collected off the California coast, from a southern location of La Jolla, San Diego to a northern location of Monterey Bay. As well, NMNH, OCNMS and MBARI, through collection and video records, also indicated sightings or collections off Oregon, Washington, British Columbia to the Gulf of Alaska, at 64-≥1000 m. This represents a substantial range but does include the entire California Bight region. Additionally, Cairns and Bayer (2005, 2009), along with Heikoop et al. (2002) and Risk et al. (2002), reported species of Primnoa from the subantarctic Pacific sector. Sánchez (in Gordon 2009), reported species of Primnoa off New Zealand coasts.