Desmophyllum dianthus Esper 1794

Desmophyllum dianthus (Esper, 1794)

Figs. 3 H–I, 4I, 12

Madrepora dianthus Esper, 1794: pl. 69, figs. 1–3.

Desmophyllum cristagalli Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848: 253, pl. 7, figs. 10, 10a.—Squires, 1969: 17, pl. 6, map 1.—Cairns, 1982: 29–30, pl. 8, figs. 9–12, pl. 9, figs. 1–3, map 6 (synonymy); 1990: 43–44, fig. 15.

Desmophyllum ingens Moseley, 1881: 160 –162, pl. 4, figs. 1–6, pl. 5, figs. 1–4a.—Squires, 1969: 17, pl. 6, map 1.

Desmophyllum capense Gardiner, 1904: 96 –97.

Desmophyllum cristagalli forma capense: Cairns, 1982: 29.

Desmophyllum dianthus: Cairns, 1994: 26 –27, pl. 9a–d (synonymy, neotype designation).—Cairns et al., 2005: 36–39, figs. 5A–E, 6F–H, 7.—Kitahara, 2007, 502, 503 (listed).—Kitahara et al., 2009: 228 (listed).

Remarks. This is an extremely commonly collected deep-water coral, having been described and illustrated many times (see synonymy). Most of the specimens reported herein are of the typical form (see Cairns 1982), but one is of the capense form (PAT0108DR11, Fig. 4 I), that specimen having 116 septa, or 10 pairs of S6. The largest specimen (PAT0209DR9) is 55.9 x 41.2 mm in CD.

Distribution. Desmophyllum dianthus is one of about a dozen cosmopolitan species of Scleractinia, occurring everywhere but off continental Antarctica, at depths ranging from 8–2460 m (Roberts et al. 2009: www.lophelia.org/coldwatercoralsbook). It has been previously reported from both Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Patagonia (Cairns 1982, Cairns et al. 2005). The newly reported Argentinean records range from 733–1629 m and occur throughout the study area (Fig. 12).

Material. PAT0108DR11, 2, USNM 1192954; PAT1008DR1, 1, USNM 1192956; PAT1008DR4, 2, MNCN, and 1, USNM 1192957; PAT1008DR6, 1, USNM 1192953; PAT1208DR4, 1, MNCN; PAT0209DR7, 1, USNM 1192950; PAT0209DR8, 1, MNCN; PAT0209DR9, 2, MNCN, and 1, USNM 1192952; PAT0209DR10, 1, USNM 1192955; PAT0209DR11, 1, USNM 1192949; PAT0209DR15, 3, MNCN; PAT0209DR16, 3, MNCN, and 1, USNM 1192951; ATL08Lo14, 1, MNCN.