Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Breedy, Odalisca & Guzman, Hector M., 2015, A revision of the genus Muricea Lamouroux, 1821 (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the eastern Pacific. Part I: Eumuricea Verrill, 1869 revisited, ZooKeys 537, pp. 1-32 : 16-18

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Plexauridae

Genus Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 Figure 12

Swiftia Synonymy in Breedy et al. (2015)

Diagnosis.

Colonies branching mostly in one plane, fan-like, dichotomous, pinnate-like, or unbranched. Branches mostly free or with some anastomosing. Polyp mounds conical, prominent, or slightly raised, scattered or crowded, usually biserial and with two opposed polyp mounds at the tip of the branches. Coenenchyme usually thin. Coenenchymal sclerites mainly capstans, radiates and spindles. Thin, sharp and elongated spindles concentrated in the polyp mounds. Anthocodiae with points arrangements of bar-like rods straight or curved, frequently long. Collaret absent or of a few bar-like rods. Axis horny and flexible. Colour of the colonies red, orange, pink, or white.

Type species.

Gorgonia exserta Ellis & Solander, 1786, by monotypy.