Callogorgia Gray, 1858

Cairns, Stephen D., 2018, Deep-Water Octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from the Galapagos and Cocos Islands. Part 1: Suborder Calcaxonia, ZooKeys 729, pp. 1-46 : 3

Genus Callogorgia Gray, 1858

Callogorgia Gray 1858: 286; Bayer 1982: 119-123; 1998: 162-163; Cairns and Bayer 2002: 841-845; 2009: 40; Cairns 2010: 425; 2016: 58.

Caligorgia Wright and Studer 1889: 75-77; Versluys 1906: 55-58; Kükenthal 1919: 362-366.

Type species.

Gorgonia verticillata Pallas, 1766, by monotypy.

Diagnosis.

Colonies uniplanar, pinnately or dichotomously branched. Polyps cylindrical to clavate, arranged in whorls of up to 12, all polyps facing upward. Polyps covered with eight longitudinal rows of body wall scales, the number of scales per row decreasing from ab- to adaxial polyp side. Body wall scales granular, smooth, pitted, or covered with tall ridges (cristate). Inner side of opercular scales convex, covered with a multiply serrate keel.

Distribution.

Indo-Pacific, Atlantic, 37-2472 m deep.

Remarks.

The identification of the species of Callogorgia has been greatly facilitated by the availability of previously published dichotomous keys. The structure and characters used for the first published key were chosen by Kükenthal (1919) and later refined by Kükenthal (1924) and Bayer (1982). Since Bayer’s key, which was limited to the Indo-Pacific species, at least one species ( C. cristata (Aurivillius, 1931)) has been synonymized, two ( C. ventilabrum Studer, 1878, C. laevis Thomson and Mackinnon, 1911) transferred to different genera, four described as new ( C. tessellata Cairns, 2016, C. dichotoma Cairns, 2016, C. galapagensis sp. n., C. arawak Bayer et al., 2014), two previously overlooked ( C. gilberti (Nutting, 1908), C. modesta (Studer, 1878)), and the characteristics of C. kinoshitai ( Kükenthal, 1913) re-evaluated. Thus, a revised key is provided below, which relies heavily on the characters used in previously published keys. C. dubia (Thomson and Henderson, 1906), based on a poor description and no figures, is of doubtful attribution and is not considered in the key. Previously C. elegans ( Kükenthal 1919, Bayer 1982) had been keyed as having 12-13 abaxial scales, but examination of the type in the BM by Bayer (pers. comm.) indicates that it has only six to eight abaxial body wall scales and a body wall sclerite formula of: 6-8:2:0:1. Keys to the five western Atlantic species were published by Cairns and Bayer (2002) and Bayer et al. (2014). Altogether, there are currently 28 valid species in the genus ( Cairns and Bayer 2009; Taylor and Rogers 2015).