Staurotheca nonscripta Pena Cantero, Svoboda & Vervoort 1997

Staurotheca nonscripta Peña Cantero, Svoboda & Vervoort, 1997a

(Fig. 3B)

Staurotheca nonscripta —Peña Cantero & Vervoort, 2003: 2696 –2698, fig. 13 (synonymy).

Material examined. 48EV194 , fragments up to 22 mm long, with male and female gonothecae (IK–2012–10435), and a mass of stems 70 mm in diameter, with male and female gonothecae (IK–2009–0300).

Description. Compact monosiphonic colonies consisting of a mass of stems and branches irregularly branched in several planes, up to 70 mm in diameter. With anastomoses. Hydrothecae arranged in decussate pairs, forming four longitudinal rows, immersed into the branches for approXimately one-quarter of their volume and strongly curving outwards. Adcauline hydrothecal wall with a considerable free portion (Fig. 3B), adnate to internode for half or slightly more of its length. Free part of adcauline wall straight or slightly conveX; abcauline wall concave. Hydrothecal aperture circular; rim even and usually with numerous renovations. Gonothecae inserting at hydrothecal base. Female gonotheca urn-shaped; basal part ovoid, distally contracted into a short neck with distal aperture. Male gonotheca fusiform, with cone-shaped neck provided with a small, circular aperture.

Ecology and distribution. Our material was collected at depths between 325 and 409 m, basibiont of Bimeria corynopsis and Campanularia hicksoni and with gonothecae in December. Antarctic-Patagonian distribution (Peña Cantero & Vervoort 2003).