Calcigorgia spiculifera Broch 1935

Calcigorgia spiculifera Broch, 1935

Figures 1d, 14 b–c, 16–20

Calcigorgia spiculifera Broch, 1935: 22; 1940: 11.(54°36'N, 143°48'E, Sea of Okhotsk, 165 m deep, «Ara» Trawl 27-1, Silty sand, Otter trawl, 8–9 Sep.1932, collector: P. Yu. Shmidt)

Calcigorgia spiculifera; Sanchez and Cairns 2004: 270.

Calcigorgia simushiri, Dautova 2018: 9. (46°46'41”N, 151°55'23”E, East of Simushir I., Sea of Okhotsk, 200 m deep, “Tikhookeansky”, deredged, 16 Aug. 1987, S. Grebelnyi leg.)

? Calcigorgia spiculifera, Dautova 2018: 11. (47°25'N, 152°42'E, Rikord Strait, Sea of Okhotsk, 440 m deep, RV”Oparin”, trawled, 1 Jul.1988, coll. Gruzov)

Material examined. Identified as C. spiculifera by Bayer: USNM 1012500; neotype, NE of Islands of Four Mountains, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea: 53°11.67'N 169°41.07'W, depth 431 m, bottom temp, 3.6°C, F/ N Vesteraalen cruise 94-1, haul 44, 11 June 1994, one nearly complete colony, (USNM-SEM Stub 2 539); USNM 8849, Gull Island, Akutan Pass, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, East Bering Sea, U.S. Coast Survey, coll. Dall, William Healey, dry; USNM 75091, Queen Charlotte Strait, Near N End Of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, 50.87°N, 127.47°W, depth 30 to 50 m, scuba, coll. McDaniel, N. 1983; USNM 82124, South of Umnak Island, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 52.8761°N, 168.795°W, depth 86 m, R/ V Miller Freeman cruise802,VH-80- 30, 5 August 1980; USNM 100735, Tanaga Pass, between Ulak and Ilak I, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51°26.98'N, 178°36.6'E, depth 393 m, bottom temp. 3.7°C, R/ V Pacific Knight, cruise 94-1, haul 161, 18 July 1994; USNM 100805, Aleutian Islands, Near Islands, SW of Attu I., Bering Sea, 52.28°N, 172.30°W, depth 234 m, R/ V Starlight, 84-1, haul 36, 13 July 1984, Two colonies, 1 large in alc (USNM-SEM Stub 2 534); USNM 100807, Amatignak Island, Delarof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51°N, 179°W, R/ V Pacific Knight, cruise 941, haul 161, 18 July 1994; USNM 1006141, Umnak Island, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 52.6326°N, 169.788°W, depth 79 to 80 m, R/ V Vesteraalen, NOAA Expedition 2001, haul 3 #6, snail bag, coll. Lindner, A. 21 May 2001; USNM 1011013, Kirilof Point, near tip of point, Amchitka Island, Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.42°N, 179.3°E, depth to 24 m, AB80-26, Scuba, vertical bedrock wall, coll. Barr, L. & Mercier, J., 2 June 1974; USNM 1011026, Alex's Grotto, gorgonian growth study site, Little Port Walter Light, Southeast Alaska, 56.39°N, 134.64°W, depth 290 m, John N. Cobb R /V, AB99-15, Scuba, coll. Stone, R. 2 June 1999; USNM 1011027, East Point, gorgonian growth study site, Tenakee Inlet, Southeast Alaska), 57.81°N, 134.95°W, depth 21 m, John N. Cobb R /V, AB99-14, Scuba, coll. Stone, R. 1 June 1999; USNM 1011029, Peril Strait, Liesnoi Island, Southeast Alaska, 57.42°N, 135.61°W depth 15 m, AB70-99, Scuba, coll. Ellis, Williamson, Hoopes, & Barr, 1 July 1970; USNM 1011030, Little Port Walter, Baranof Island, Alexander Archipelago, Southeast Alaska, 56.39°N, 134.64°W, depth 11 m, AB62-172, Scuba, coll. Guost, J. G. 8 May 1962; USNM1011091, Semisopochnoi Island, Petrel Bank, Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 52.2243°N, 179.888°W, depth to 40 m, Delta DSR/V, Submersible Dive 5604, AB02-121, sample #27 & 28; coll. Malecha, P. 16 July 2002; USNM1011092, Adak Island, Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.8864°N, 176.189°W, depth to 54 m, Delta DSR/V, Submersible Dive 5515, AB02-136, sample #57, coll. Stone, R. 22 July 2002; other material: USNM 60278, no data; USNM 80949, Off N Coast, Akun Island, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 54.2458°N, 165.689°W, depth 40 m, coll. Viada, S. T., 1 August 1985; USNM 100777, Amchitka Island, Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.23°N, 179.2°E, cruise 861, Trawl—Noreast, haul 52, 17 August 1986; USNM 100809, SE of Kagalaska I., Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51°39.28’N, 176°13.2W, depth 216 m, bottom temp. 4.4 °C, F/ V Pacific Knight cruise 94-1, haul 153, 12 July 1994; USNM 1006139, Unalaska Island, Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, 53.1439°N, 167.14°W, depth to 107 m, R/ V Vesteraalen, NOAA Expedition 2001, snail bag, haul 7 #1, coll. Lindner, A. 22 May 2001; USNM 1136483, Queen Charolette Sound, British Columbia, 51.7064°N, 130.752°W, depth to 284 m, coll. Driscoll, John, 11 June 2009; USNM 1011072, Lisianski Strait, 50 yards from shore, Gulf of Alaska, 57.86°N, 136.46°W, depth 10 m, AB77-72, Scuba, coll. Carlson, H. R. 17 July 1977; USNM 1011273, Adak Island, Beyer Bay, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.6427°N, 176.328°W, depth to 24 m, R/ V Velero IV, AB02-133, sample #52, 53, Scuba, coll. Stone, R., Malecha, P., Courtney, D. 21 July 2002, dry; USNM 1011275, Little Tanaga Pass, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.8845°N, 176.189°W, depth to 52 m, Delta DSR/V, Submersible Dive 5515, AB02-139, sample #59, coll. Stone, R. 22 July 2002; USNM 1092786, Baranof Island, Cape Ommaney, Alexander Archipelago, Gulf of Alaska, 56.1781°N, 135.121°W, depth 244 m, R/ V Velero IV, St.Ommaney 4, submersible, coll. Stone, R., 19 August 2005; USNM 1133587, South of Amilia Island, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.9716°N, 173.946°W, depth to 96 m, Delta DSR/V, st. 6224, submersible, 6 July 2004.

Description (after the manuscript of Bayer). Branching is a mixture of openly lateral and irregularly dichotomous. There is a strong tendency to branch in one plane so the colonies are more or less flabellate, but in some cases major branches conspicuously diverge, probably in response to local environmental conditions, and colonies then have a more or less compressed, bushy aspect. The cylindrical polyps are up to 3 mm tall and 1.6 mm wide.

The sclerites conform with those of the type as far as illustrated by Broch (1935), differing somewhat in size as can be expected. The polyps are armed with tuberculate spindles that may be more or less club-like, the smaller ones up to about 0.18 mm in length, the longer about 0.3 mm (Figure 16a) but intergrading with the spindles of the polyp body (Figure 16b), which reach a length of 0.36 mm, sometimes slightly longer. The coenenchyme contains small capstans, double heads, and cylinders 0.07–0.11 mm in length, with indistinct waist intergrading with belted spindles reaching lengths of 0.12–0.15 mm (Figure 17a), together with a few crosses and irregular forms (Figure 16c, 17b).

Colour. All sclerites are colorless.

Distribution. Okhotsk Sea in 150–165 m, eastward through the Aleutian Islands, 4–435 m, NE Pacific (Figure 1d).

Remarks. The type described by Broch (1935) seems to be missing in the University of Oslo, Norway or ZIN, St. Petersburg, Russia, but the USNM has a large number of specimens identified as C. spiculifera with characters matching the description of Broch.

Bayer’s USNM-SEM 2539 stub used for showing complete polyps was taken from USNM 101 2500 (Figures 14b, 18), and Bayer’s USNM-SEM 2534 stub was taken from USNM 100805 (Figures 16–17). USNM 1012500 has been chosen as the neotype. The materials examined by Bayer were collected during NOAA Fishers bottom trawl surveys in the Aleutioan Islands of Alaska and sent by Dr.Wing to Bayer in the 1990s (personal comm. Dr. Robert Stone, NOAA Fisheries 2018.2.21).

Bayer mentioned that Broch’s original specimen obviously was a small colony dichotomously branched, but with only a single bifurcation that did not provide any idea of the branching of fully developed colonies. The specimens that Bayer examined agree so closely with Broch’s description of the holotype in regard to morphological details that there can be no doubt about their conspecificity. He mentioned all are fully developed colonies that show the mature branching pattern lacking in the type. The colony of USNM1133587 is unbranched and the shape looks similar to Broch’s description (Figure 14c). This also could be an small colony but it has developed sclerites (Figure 19).

The clubs are not always as long as mentioned above, USNM 1011030 has typical sclerites such as SEM 2534 (Figure 16–17) though it has rather smaller clubs up to only 0.15 mm long (Figure 20) obscuring the difference with C. beringi.

The species differs from all others in having polyp spindles and club-like sclerites instead of real clubs. Bayer mentioned that C. beringi has a more slender colonial form than C. spiculifera. C. beringi and C. spiculifera have been collected at the same locality in the Bering Sea showing that they share a similar habitat (Figure 1a, d). The sclerites shown by Dautova (2018: Figure 7–13) for C. simushiri hardly differ from C. spiculifera (see discussion). Therefore we here synonymize C. simushiri with C. spiculifera. The information about the specimen identified as C. spiculifera in Dautova (2018) is not adequate to make a decision about what species that actually was. The locality of C. Simushiri in Dautova (2018) are mostly the same as C.spiculifera in Dautova (2018) (Figure 1d).