Muricella gracilis Wright & Studer, 1889

Muricella gracilis Wright & Studer, 1889: 129–131, pl. 25, fig. 7 (Admiralty Islands).

Opinion: There is no evidence that this species occurs in the region and its true identity is unknown.

Justification:

Literature analysis: This species was erected by Wright & Studer (1889) for material collected off the Admiralty Islands near Papua New Guinea. The polyps were described as being retractile into very short calyces, so the colony they had before them was not a Muricella. The coenenchymal sclerites are described as, “… thickly covered with large, rough surfaced, and sometimes branched warts. The warts on the outer side are always larger and generally provided with spine-like or branching outgrowths” and the calicular sclerites as, “… more club-shaped, curved or straight structures which are provided only with a few sharp spines; or they are structures provided with sharp, sometimes branching spines, and usually somewhat flattened. Their apices project frequently above the margin of the calyx, so that the latter appears to be surrounded by a crown of spines”. This places the species in the Plexauridae, but the description is not adequate to determine what genus it should be assigned to.

Kumar et al. (2017: 52, PY-B) report the species from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands citing Menacella gracilis Thomson & Simpson, 1909 listed by Rao & Devi (2003). The latter authors did not list Muricella gracilis. Thomson & Simpson (1909) described Menacella gracilis as a new species from the Andamans, which was probably an Astrogorgia, and also Muricella gracilis where they just paraphrase the description given by Wright & Studer (1889) and do not appear to have had any specimens. Menacella gracilis appears in the index to Thomson & Simpson’s publication but Muricella gracilis does not.