Anemonia sargassensis

Diagnosis. Fully expanded oral disc and tentacles 9 - 50 mm in diameter. Oral disc smooth, 4 - 22 mm in diameter, wider than column, dark-orange, brownish, greenish or dark-red, with white or yellowish endocoelic radial stripes tapering from tentacle bases (Figure 3 A, B); mouth bright orange or pink (Figure 3 B). Tentacles hexamerously arranged in 4 - 5 cycles (48 - 76 in number), moderately long (to 6 - 19 mm length), smooth, slender, tapering distally, inner ones longer than outer ones, contractile, dark-orange to reddish, sometimes with whitish or yellowish tips and pink or purple flashes (Figure 3 A-C). Fossa well marked (Figure 3 G). Poorly marked endocoelic marginal projections, 17 - 35, forming acrorhagi (Figure 3 G), with holotrichs and basitrichs. Column cylindrical, short, smooth, 5 - 11 mm in diameter and 5 - 12 mm in height, dark-orange to dark-red. Pedal disc well-developed, 6 - 16 mm in diameter, wider than column (Figure 3 C), bright-orange or pink. Mesenteries irregularly arranged in four cycles: first and second cycles perfect, others imperfect; more mesenteries proximally than distally (82 - 89 and 44 - 48 pairs respectively in specimens examined). Directives absent, 5 - 6 siphonoglyphs in specimens examined (Figure 3 D, E). Gametogenic tissue not observed in specimens examined. Larvae observed in coelenteron of one specimen examined (Figure 3 E). Retractor muscles diffuse to restricted; parietobasilar muscles weak with short mesogleal pennon (Figure 3 F). Basilar muscles well-developed (Figure 3 H). Marginal sphincter muscle endodermal, diffuse (Figure 3 G). Longitudinal muscles of tentacles ectodermal (Figure 3 I). Zooxanthellae present. Cnidom: basitrichs, holotrichs, microbasic b- and p-mastigophores and spirocysts (Figure 3 J-U; see Table 2).

Distribution. Western Atlantic, from the northern coast of USA and Caribbean Sea, to the northern coast of Brazil (Carlgren and Hedgpeth 1952, Varela 2002, Zamponi et al. 1998).