Halecium beanii: Millard, 1975: 144-145, figs 47A-E; Cornelius, 1995a: 276–278, fig. 62; Ramil et al., 1998: 7; Medel & Vervoort, 2000: 8–12, fig. 1; Schuchert, 2005: 615–618, fig. 5, 6.
Material examined. MSM 16 /3, stn GeoB 14796–1, ROV, 20°14.840’– 20°14.575’N, 17°40.193’– 17°40.071’W, 487–642 m, 3-XI-2010: three colonies 40–60 mm high, attached to Lophelia pertusa, all colonies with female gonothecae.
Biology.Halecium beanii has been usually found growing on hard substrata like rocks and concretions and on algae and other invertebrates (Gravili et al. 2015). Fertile material has been found throughout the year (Cornelius 1995a; Gil & Ramil 2017a).
Our material was found growing on L. pertusa. Colonies with female gonothecae were recorded in November.
Distribution. This species shows a near cosmopolitan distribution in shallow to moderately deep waters, with records in all oceans but the Southern Ocean (Cornelius 1995a; Ramil et al. 1998; Schuchert 2005); its distribution was reviewed in detail by Medel & Vervoort (2000). In West Africa, H. beanii was collected from Morocco (Patriti 1970), Canary Islands (Medel & Vervoort 2000), Cape Verde Islands (Rees & Thursfield 1965), Guinea-Bissau (Vervoort 1959; Gili et al. 1989) and Ghana (Buchanan 1957). Its bathymetric distribution extends from 0 to 1134 m (Millard 1978).
Our material was collected from depths of 487 to 642 m.
Remarks. The presence of female gonothecae confirms the identification of this material as H. beanii. Its morphology is very similar to that of Halecium halecinum (Linnaeus, 1758), and only the female gonothecae allow accurate separation of both species (Millard 1975; Ramil & Vervoort 1992; Schuchert 2005).