Tethocyathus variabilis Cairns 1979

Tethocyathus variabilis Cairns, 1979

Figs. 2P–Q

Tethocyathus cylindraceus Pourtalès, 1868: 134 (in part); 1871: 13 (in part); 1880: 101 (in part).

Tethocyathus laevigatus Pourtalès, 1878: 202 (in part).

Tethocyathus rawsonii Pourtalès, 1880: 101 (in part).

Asterosmilia prolifera Squires, 1959: 12.

Tethocyathus variabilis Cairns, 1979: 86–87, pl. 15, figs. 7–10— Zibrowius, 1980: 81–82, pl. 37, figs. A–N, pl. 38, figs. A–L.— Santodomingo et al., 2007: 286 (listed).

Remarks: Colombian specimens have a thick and banded epitheca, which covers the costae. Near the calicular edge, between the epitheca and the theca, there is a narrow and deep notch. Epitheca bands disappear at 3/4 of the corallite length, showing the costae with one or two pointed granules; the shallow and wide intercostal furrows are twice the costal width. Colombian specimen was identified as T. variabilis because of their thick epitheca and their well defined palar crown before S2. Cairns (1979: 86) description read as “S1 and S4 are straight, but lower inner edges of S2 and S3 have numerous undulations in the proximity of the columella”, however Colombian specimen showed a serrated S3–S4 axial septal edge resembling T. rawsonii. In spite of this similarity to T. rawsonii, T. variabilis differs in the palar arrangement (one P2), the epitheca type and the junction of the inferior-superior septa throughout their paliform lobes. Colombian specimen exhibits the septa joined to the columella only in the deep fossa.

Distribution: Antillean distribution, also in Yucatan channel; 250–576 m (Cairns 1979). Eastern Atlantic, off the western Sahara coast and Azores; 250–860m depth (Zibrowius 1980). In Colombia, one specimen was collected off San Bernardo Islands at 106 m depth. This is the first record for Colombia, and it extends the bathymetrical range of the species from the upper slope up to the continental shelf.

Material: INV CNI2739, 1 specimen, D38.