Description

Description. The colony is uniplanar to slightly bushy, the Galapagos specimen (Alb- 2818, Figure 3 b) measuring 12 cm in height, but it is part of a badly damaged colony that was probably larger. Branching is equal and dichotomous. The upward-directed polyps are usually arranged in pairs but may also occur in whorls of three as well as individually. Polyps are about 2.6 mm in length, about two pairs occurring per cm branch length. The body wall scales (Figure 11 e) are arranged in eight somewhat irregular longitudinal rows, the sclerite formula being: 5 - 6: 4 - 5: 4 - 5: variable. All marginal scales, except for the abaxial marginals, are roughly rectangular, 0.35 - 0.64 mm in width, and have a straight distal margin that covers only a small proximal part of the opercular scales. The distal edges of the two marginal scales project as small teeth. All body wall scales except for the adaxials become progressively larger and transform to triangular toward the base of the polyp. The adaxial body wall scales (Figure 11 a, g) are small (0.25 - 0.35 mm in diameter) and random (variable) in arrangement, but cover the entire adaxial side of the polyp. The body wall scales are relatively thick, convex, and covered with low ridges; their distal edges are finely serrate. The opercular scales (Figure 11 f) are triangular in shape (0.75 - 1.2 mm in length, L: W = 2.2 - 2.9), each with an elongate distal process, the length and L: W progressively decreasing from ab- to adaxial side; the operculum is quite prominent (Figure 11 a-c). The outer opercular face is covered with granules basally and short serrate ridges distally; the inner face is also covered with serrate ridges raised into a keel-like structure distally, but having tubercles proximally. The coenenchymal scales (Figure 11 h) are elongate (L: W about 4), with a granular outer surface and a tuberculate inner surface.

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Cnidaria

Class: Anthozoa

Order: Scleralcyonacea

Family: Primnoidae

Genus: Faxiella

Species: Plumarella abietina (Studer, 1894)