Published December 31, 2011 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Leiopathes Haime 1849

Description

Leiopathes Haime, 1849

Diagnosis. Corallum irregularly sympodially branched but not pinnulate; branching multidirectional or flabellate. Branchlets arranged irregularly, loosely bilateral or uniserial, usually bent to some degree. Spines small, simple with smooth surface; triangular, conical or blister-shaped, often poorly developed or absent on older parts of the corallum. Polyps with 12 mesenteries; round with well-developed tentacles, arranged in a single row at terminal branchelets. Adjacent polyps often unequal.

Type species. Antipathes glaberrima Esper, 1792.

Remarks. Up to eleven species have been recognized in the genus Leiopathes (Fautin 2011). An exhaustive historical account and synonymy of the genus were presented by Opresko (1998) and Opresko and Baron-Szabo (2001). In both accounts Antipathes valdiviae Pax, 1915 was not considered. However, characteristic colony form as well as the form and distribution of spines and the form and arrangement of polyps in A. valdiviae are typical for the genus Leiopathes (Fig. 1).

Species assigned to Leiopathes. I assign eight species to this genus: A. glaberrima Esper, 1792, L. expansa Johnson, 1899, L. grimaldii Roule, 1902, A. valdiviae Pax, 1915, L. acanthophora Opresko, 1998, L. bullosa Opresko, 1998, L. secunda Opresko, 1998, and L. montana n. sp.

Distribution. Four species of this genus are known from the North Atlantic (L. glaberrima, L. expansa, L. grimaldii and L. montana), and four species are known from the Indian Ocean (L. valdiviae, L. acanthophora, L. bullosa and L. secunda). The species determined as L. glaberrima has been reported from Hawaii (Grigg & Opresko 1977; Roark et al. 2009).

Notes

Published as part of Molodtsova, Tina N., 2011, A new species of Leiopathes (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) from the Great Meteor seamount (North Atlantic), pp. 52-64 in Zootaxa 3138 on pages 53-55, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.201527

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Leiopathidae
Genus
Leiopathes
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Antipatharia
Phylum
Cnidaria
Scientific name authorship
Haime
Taxon rank
genus
Taxonomic concept label
Leiopathes Haime, 1849 sec. Molodtsova, 2011

References

  • Haime, J. (1849) Sur les polypieroide d'un Leiopathes glaberrima. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Series 3, 12, 224 - 226.
  • Esper, E. J. C. (1792) Die Pflanzenthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Farben erleuchtet nebst Beschreibungen, 2, Nurnberg. 160 pp.
  • Fautin, D. G. (2011) Hexacorallians of the World. Available from: http: // geoportal. kgs. ku. edu / hexacoral / anemone 2 / index. cfm [Consulted most recently August 2011]
  • Opresko, D. M. (1998) Three new species of the genus Leiopathes (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Antipatharia) from coastal waters of Australia and Tasmania. Records of the South Australian Museum, 32, 143 - 154.
  • Opresko, D. M. & Baron-Szabo, R. C. (2001) Re-description of the Antipatharian corals described by E. J. C. Esper with selected English translation of the original German text (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Antipatharia). Senckenbergiana Biologica, 81, 1 - 21.
  • Pax, F. (1915) Diagnosen neuer Antipatharien. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 45, 598 - 601.
  • Johnson, J. Y. (1899) Notes on the antipatharian corals of Madeira, with descriptions of a new species and a new variety, and remarks on a specimen from the West Indies in the British Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 53, 813 - 824.
  • Roule, L. (1902) Notice preliminaire sur les Antipathaires provenant des collections du Prince de Monaco. Memoirs of the Society of Zoology of France, 15, 228 - 239.
  • Grigg, R. W. & Opresko, D. M. (1977) Order Antipatharia. In: Devaney, D. M. & Eldredge, L. G. (Eds.), Reef and shore fauna of Hawaii. Section 1: Protozoa through Ctenophora. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 64, 1, 242 - 261.
  • Roark, E. B., Guilderson, T. P., Dunbar, R. B., Fallon, S. J. & Mucciarone, D. A. (2009) Extreme longevity in proteinaceous deepsea corals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 5204 - 5208.