Calcigorgia japonica Dautova 2007

Calcigorgia japonica Dautova, 2007

Figures 1c, 9 ab, 10–12

Calcigorgia japonica Dautova, 2007: 302 (39°35'N, 135°01'E, Sea of Japan, 832– 736 m deep, silted sand, 8 August 1933, coll. K.M. Deryugin); 2018: 11.

Material examined. ZIN 11678, Skaly Lovushki I., Sea of Okhotsk, “Novoulyanovsk”, fishery bottom trawl Ñ79 (maybe = Ottertrawl), bottom: unknown (trawl has been torn to pieces; all animals were collected from warps), coll. Alexander Ereskovsky, 4 October 1984; ZIN 11661, Ketoi I., Sea of Okhotsk, 47°12'8N 152°38'1E, depth 900 m, bottom: pebbles, Ship “Odissey” Cruise 34, St. 27, small dredge, coll. Mikhail Kolesnikov and Vyacheslav Bizikov, 10 January 1985; ZIN 11662, Skaly Lovushki I., Sea of Okhotsk, 48°02'17N 154°24'05 E, depth 580 m, bottom: stones, gravel, ship “Odissey” st. 18, small dredge, coll. Boris Sirenko and Mikhail Kolesnikov, 3 August 1984; ZIN 11675, Skaly Lovushki I., Sea of Okhotsk, 48°48'54N 153°43'00E, depth 800–1000 m, “Novoulyanovsk”, fishery bottom trawl Ñ79 (maybe = Ottertrawl), bottom: unknown (trawl has been torn to pieces; all animals were collected from warps), coll. Sergey Grebelnyi and Alexander Ereskovsky, 4 October 1984; USNM 100816 N of Four Mountains, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 52°52.69’N 169°58.78’W, depth 62 m, bottom temp. 4.5 °C, R/ V Vesteraalen cruise 94-1, haul 40, 11 June 1994, three nearly complete colonies; USNM 1004642 Bering Sea, 52°N 177°W, field number AB 01-66; USNM 1006154 east of the Delray Islands, Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, 51.6962°N 178.342°W, depth 280 m, R/ V Spirit of the North, field number AB 01-64, sample #16, coll. Renfro, K., 3 March 2000, one nearly complete colony; USNM 1116869 British Colombia, Canada, North Pacific Ocean, 48.3007°N 124.935°W, depth 227.9 m, Deep Sea Coral and Sponge Habitat Expedition, cruise 958, st. 132, ROV Ropos, 1 June 2006.

Description. ZIN 11678 are two fragments of a colony (Figure 9a). The polyps are arranged spirally around the branches, they are about 5 mm high and 2 mm wide. Tentacles without sclerites. Polyps with spindles and clubs, up to 0.35 mm long, with simple tubercles (Figure 10a). The clubs with very spiny heads. The coenenchyme with capstans, small spindles and crosses, up to 0.12 mm long, with simple tubercles (Figure 10 b–c).

Colour. The fragments are brown and the sclerites are colorless.

Distribution. Sea of Japan in 832– 736 m, Sea of Okhotsk in 580–1000 m, Bering Sea - 280 m, West coast of North-American continent, NE Pacific in 227.9 m (Figure 1c).

Remarks. The long spiny clubs of the polyps of this species are unique in the genus Calcigorgia. USNM 1116869, the only examined material from the NE Pacific, has well developed more foliate clubs (Figure 11b), the other sclerites are typical C. japonica except for some flattened rods and spindles (Figure 11a, c). USNM 100816 has immature clubs (Figure 12a) and most of the sclerites are larger than in the other specimens (Figure 12). Specimens of C. japonica, previously known from only a single fragment, from the Sea of Japan (Dautova, 2007), from four localities of Sea of Okhotsk, with depth range 580–1000 m, two localities in Bering Sea, up to 280 m deep, and one locality on the west coast of the North-American continent, in 227.9 m, extend the distribution range of the species.

We here present the nearly complete colony of USNM1006154 from the West Bering Sea (Figure 9b).