Shallow water Actiniaria and Corallimorpharia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) from King George Island, Antarctica

Abstract

Antarctic sea anemones, with few exceptions, are known mainly from dredged or trawled samples while the shallow water anemone fauna of this region is poorly known. In the present paper, we present records of 10 species of sea anemones collected and photographed in situ on diver accessible depths (down to 40 m) on King George Island. Three species, Edwardsia inachi sp.n., Armactinia antarctica gen.n. sp.n. and Corallimorphus karinae sp.n. are described as new. The remaining species are briefly described and discussed. Descriptions include new data on nematocysts and shape of spermatozoa. How to cite this article:

Two new deepwater sea anemones (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria) Sicyonis heliodiscus sp.n. (Actinostolidae) and Hormathia pacifica sp.n. (Hormathiidae) from Pacific

“…Hormathia lacunifera (Stephenson, 1918) is widely distributed in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters and was re-described in detail by several recent authors (Dunn, 1983;Rodríguez, López-González, 2013;Sanamyan et al, 2015). This species differs from H. pacifica sp.n.…”

“…This species differs from H. pacifica sp.n. quite distinctly in live and in preserved condition; in particular it has more flattened rectangular tubercles (see Rodríguez, López-González, 2013;Sanamyan et al, 2015). Cnidom also presents substantial differences, in particular the large basitrichs in acontia are much larger than those of H. pacifica sp.n.…”

“…Cnidom also presents substantial differences, in particular the large basitrichs in acontia are much larger than those of H. pacifica sp.n. and p-mastigophores in the actinopharynx are of different type (most pmastigophores in the actinopharynx of H. lacunifera are thin-walled p-mastigophores A, see Sanamyan et al, 2015).…”

Two poorly known Arctic sea anemones, Cactosoma abyssorum and Halcampa arctica (Actiniaria: Halcampidae)

“…The holotype of this species (ZMBN 9797, Fig. 4A, B) is now represented by a small piece of the upper part of the body which is in poor condition and not allows detailed study (see Sanamyan et al, 2015). We tried to study nematocysts of the holotype but were able only to find numerous spirocysts (24-46 × 3-4 µm) and several basitrichs in the tentacles (15-19 × 2-3 µm) and in the scapulus (about 20 µm).…”

Supplemental Material for 'Psittacosaurus amitabha, a new species of ceratopsian dinosaur from the Ondai Sayr locality, central Mongolia. (American Museum novitates, no. 3932)'

“…Edwardsiids are easily distinguishable from other burrowing anemones by their distinctive mesentery arrangement of eight unpaired macrocnemes at midcolumn with microcnemes located only distally at the base of tentacles (Carlgren, 1949). Edwardsiidae Andres, 1881, is among the most speciose taxon in the Order Actiniaria with 10 genera and approximately 95 valid species (Fautin, 2016;our data) distributed worldwide from polar to tropical zones, including hypersaline environments (Daly et al, 2012) and Antarctic ice (Daly et al, 2013;Sanamyan et al, 2015), from 0-3550 m (Sanamyan and Sanamyan, 2013). Though edwardsiids may be frequently collected in biodiversity surveys, oceanographic expeditions, and ecological monitoring projects, their identification is difficult due to the high number of undescribed species, their small size and need for histological examination for specific identification, and the small number of specialists able to identify them (Daly and Ljubenkov, 2008;Gusmão et al, 2016).…”