Published February 18, 2021 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Scytophorus Hertwig 1882

Description

GENUS SCYTOPHORUS HERTWIG, 1882

Diagnosis (after Carlgren, 1949; modifications in italics). Halcampoididae with elongate body and flat aboral end. Column indistinctly divisible into scapus and scapulus. Cuticle developed chiefly on scapus, with modified weak tenaculi more or less visible to the naked eye. No sphincter. Tentacles 14, with longitudinal muscles ectodermal. A single weak, ventral siphonoglyph without conchula. Mesenteries 14, six pairs plus one couple; individual mesenteries of couple with retractors faced towards dorsal pairs of directives, wherefore there is seemingly a single pair of directives. All mesenteries perfect, with retractors strong, restricted to kidneylike. Parietal muscles well developed. As a rule, all mesenteries fertile. Ciliate tracts of filaments may be discontinuous. Cnidom: spirocysts, basitrichs, p -mastigophores A.

Type species: Scytophorus striatus by monotypy.

Included species: Scytophorus antarcticus (Pfeffer, 1889) and S. striatus.

Remarks: We modified the generic diagnosis by removing the mention of a physa-like structure in members of Scytophorus. Although Hertwig (1882) described S. striatus as lacking a pedal disc and with a round aboral end, all of the S. striatus specimens examined had a distinct flat aboral end (Figs 6C, 7A, F) as seen attached to solid substrates (Fig. 6A). Although most of the specimens of S. striatus observed had their distal column and oral disc contracted, when they are relaxed, the scapulus can be easily distinguished from the rest of the column (see Fig. 6D). We left in the diagnosis the presence of a weak siphonoglyph, but this structure was difficult to observe in dissections (Fig. 7G), histological sections or micro-CT scans (Fig. 7K), as noted by others (e.g. Carlgren, 1921).

Notes

Published as part of Gusmão, Luciana C. & Rodríguez, Estefanía, 2021, Two sea anemones (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria) from the Southern Ocean with evidence of a deep-sea, polar lineage of burrowing sea anemones, pp. 1392-1415 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193 on page 1402, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa176, http://zenodo.org/record/5752621

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Halcampoididae
Genus
Scytophorus
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Actiniaria
Phylum
Cnidaria
Scientific name authorship
Hertwig
Taxon rank
genus
Taxonomic concept label
Scytophorus Hertwig, 1882 sec. Gusmão & Rodríguez, 2021

References

  • Hertwig R. 1882. Die actinien der challenger expedition. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
  • Carlgren O. 1949. A survey of the Ptychodactiaria, Corallimorpharia and Actiniaria. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar 1: 1 - 121.
  • Pfeffer G. 1889. Zur Fauna von Sud-Georgien. Jahrbuch der Hamburgischen Wissenschaftlichen Anstalten 6: 39 - 55.
  • Carlgren O. 1921. Actiniaria I. Danish Ingolf-Expedition 5: 1 - 241.