Victorgorgia

Diagnosis: Arborescent monomorphic scleraxonians with sparse, irregular branching, generally in one plane; anastomoses absent or rare; medulla extensively penetrated by large, well-defined coelenteric canals and separated from a thin cortex by a boundary space formed by anastomosing boundary canals; calyces distributed all over most of the colonies, crowded at the branch tip; pinnule and tentacle sclerites include josephinae clubs and tuberculate sticks and spindles; sclerites from points, calyx, cortex and medulla are mainly tuberculate sticks and spindles; pharynx lacks sclerites.

Remarks: Herein three nominal species of Anthothela (A. argentea Studer, 1894, A. macrocalyx (Nutting, 1911) and Clematissa alba Nutting, 1908 (= A. nuttingi Bayer, 1956 )) are transferred and two new species are added to the genus Victorgorgia. An amended diagnosis of the genus was necessary to accommodate the additional species. Additional illustrations of the type species V. josephinae were also necessary to assist in the delimitation of these species. A form of sclerite common in the genus, ‘ josephinae clubs’, is defined in the ‘ Terminology and taxonomic characters’ section on page 10. The three species where live colour has been noted (V. josephinae, V. eminens n. sp. and V. nyahae n. sp.) were all found to have parts of the colony coloured shades of purple.

Type species: Victorgorgia josephinae Lόpez-González & Briand, 2002 by monotypy.