Anneissia Summers, Messing 2014

Anneissia Summers, Messing, & Rouse, 2014

Table 1; Figs. 10–11

Type species. Alecto bennetti Müller, 1841.

Other included taxa (8). Actinometra grandicalyx Carpenter, 1882; Alecto japonica Müller, 1841; Comantheria intermedia AH Clark, 1916a; Comanthus (Cenolia) trichoptera benhami AH Clark, 1916b, Comanthus pinguis AH Clark, 1909c; Comanthus plectrophorum HL Clark, 1916; Comatula solaster AH Clark, 1907b; Oxycomanthus muelleri Rowe, Hoggett, Birtles & Vail, 1986.

Diagnosis. Mouth excentric in fully developed individuals; up to 120 arms; centrodorsal circular, large and thick; cirri always present (Fig. 10 E–H); IBr2 united by synarthry; IIBr and beyond all 4(3+4); first syzygy at 3+4 on all undivided arms; distal intersyzygial interval 4, occasionally 5; distalmost pinnule comb on P2 to P5; comb tapering distally, sometimes to a sharp point with the distal segments fused; comb composed of nonconfluent erect, well-separated teeth (Fig. 10 I).

Distribution. Tropical and temperate Indo-western Pacific from Australia (apparently absent from the west coast) and New Zealand, west at least to Great Coco I., Andaman Is., east to Kwajalein Atoll and New Caledonia, and north to Sagami Bay and Toyama Bay, Japan. Depth range: shoreline- 330 m. Depth records greater than 100 m are chiefly attributed to specimens of A. pinguis and A. solaster from Japan (Kogo 1998), and A. plectrophorum from New Zealand (to 808–925 m as Comissia mathesoni McKnight, 1977b [= A. plectrophorum]) (AH Clark 1931; Kogo 1998; Rowe & Gates 1995; Rowe 1989).

Molecular results. Specimens of Anneissia japonica and A. bennetti form separate clades in parsimony and likelihood analysis (Fig. 11), with greater than 5.4% uncorrected COI distance between specimens from each clade. Specimens of A. bennetti were recovered in two clades (referred to as ‘ type A’ and ‘ type B’), 3.3% divergent from each other, each with less than 0.6% intra clade divergence. Anneissia bennetti type A included specimens collected from Lizard Island (the neotype), Queensland, Australia, and Madang, Papua New Guinea. Anneissia bennetti type B specimens were from Raja Ampat, Indonesia and East Timor.

Remarks. As a result of recovering the type species of Oxycomanthus — Comanthus (Vania) parvicirra ß comanthipinna Gislén, 1922 —within Clarkcomanthus, Summers et al. (2014a) erected Anneissia to include those Oxycomanthus species that did not fall within Clarkcomanthus and were considered a ‘natural group’ by Rowe & Hoggett (1986) (plectrophorum, bennetti, pinguis, japonicus, solaster, intermedius, and grandicalyx). Characters shared by this group include large size and bulkiness, large centrodorsal, and numerous long cirri (chiefly>30 to as many as 73, of 20 to as many as 38 cirrals). Species now placed in Clarkcomanthus rarely have as many as 20 cirri (often none) of usually 15 or fewer cirrals (at most 20) (AH Clark 1931; Rowe et al. 1986). Some of the members of this genus may be synonyms; AH Clark (1931) regarded pinguis, japonica, and solaster to be closely related and possibly forms of the same species. He described pinguis and japonica as both having long stout cirri of more than 32 cirrals, and solaster with shorter, slenderer cirri of <30 (usually <25) cirrals; but with brachitaxes broad and aborally flattened in pinguis and solaster versus narrow and aborally convex in japonica. Kogo (1998) diagnosed japonica as having,>30 cirri <25 mm long, of 22 cirrals; pinguis with>30 cirri 30–40 mm long, of 25–32 cirrals, and solaster with <25 cirri 24 mm long, of 15–25 cirrals (although his description of the latter indicates 31 cirrals). In contrast to AH Clark, he described and illustrated brachitaxes as well-separated in solaster and pinguis, and apposed in japonica.