Lophelia pertusa

Lophelia pertusa (L., 1758)

(Tables 1−3)

Lophelia pertusa: Zibrowius 1980: 126, pl. 66, figs. A–L.—Monteiro Marques & Andrade 1981: 88.—Aguirrezabalaga et al. 1984: 94.—Zibrowius 1985: 318, tab. 2.—Altuna & García Carrascosa 1990: 56.—Ramil Blanco & Fernández Pulpeiro 1990: 27.—Álvarez Claudio 1993: 418.—Altuna Prados 1994a: 471.—Altuna Prados 1994b: 55.—Altuna Prados 1994c: 78 (fig. 1).—Altuna Prados & Álvarez Claudio 1994: 9, 10, 13.—Álvarez Claudio 1994a: 263.—Álvarez Claudio 1994b: 265.—Álvarez Claudio 1994c: 466.—Altuna 1995: 91.—Álvarez Claudio 1995a: 12.—Álvarez Claudio 1995b: 198.— Álvarez Claudio 1995c: 88, 89.—Cairns & Chapman 2001: 36 (tab. 1).—Lavaleye et al. 2002: 464.—Jarms et al. 2003: 3, fig. 5.—Duinevald et al. 2004: 14, fig. 3.—Schröder-Ritzrau et al. 2005: 160.—MMA 2007: 15.—Molodtsova et al. 2008: 119, fig. 2G.—OSPAR 2008: 38.—Reveillaud et al. 2008: 322 (tab. 1), 325 (fig. 4).—Fiege & Barnich 2009: 152, 155.— Altuna 2010: 21.— Copard et al. 2010: 2 (tab. 1).—Louzao et al. 2010: S1.

Material examined. Le Danois Bank 2008: Stn. D 4V, 1084 m, a small dead colony growing on fishing net. Avilés Canyon system: Stn. R 1, 500 m, small fragments dead and alive. Galicia Bank: Stn. G 5, 859 m, numerous fragments; Stn. G 6, 761 m, several fragments; Stn. V 5, 877 m, small fragments dead and alive; Stn. V 6, 766 m, one fragment; Stn. V 8, 780 m, numerous colonies and fragments.

Remarks. Despite its abundance in the area, the first published records from the Galicia Bank correspond to the works of Duinevald et al. (2004) and Schröder-Ritzrau et al. (2005). In stn. V5 it co-occurs with Madrepora oculata. Its presence in Le Danois Bank is very limited with no reef construction and only scarce and dead material collected. This is in accordance to remarks of previous authors. Up til now, white coral banks have not been discovered in the bank.

A coral widely distributed in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean (Zibrowius 1980), very common in the Bay of Biscay, and also recorded in the Pacific and Indian oceans (Cairns 1994).