Prof. Dr. Les Watling, Hawaii
Info
§lat is a deep-sea inhabitant that lives on rocky grounds around the Nashville Seamount (New England Seamounts) in the west-central Atlantic on rocky grounds.
The gorgonian forms a flattened disk with a diameter of about 5 cm with which it attaches itself to hard substrates.
Rhodaniridogorgia fragilis form whorls of 15 to c19 branches over a distance of 60 to 80 mm along the central axis.
The branches measure 22 to 2 mm in length and bear polyps every 6-7 mm to catch edible objects.
The polyps are 1-1.5 mm in diameter and extend 1-2 mm from the branch to the base of the tentacles.
Etymology of the genus name:
The genus name “Rhodaniridogorgia” comes from the Greek, “rhodanos” = wavy, undulating, “iridogorgia” stands for a beautiful, spirally coiled, chrysogorgiid octocoral.
Etymology
The species name “fragilis” stands for = easily broken, fragile, in recognition of the frustration of handling this specimen, whose branches easily break off from the central axis.
The gorgonian forms a flattened disk with a diameter of about 5 cm with which it attaches itself to hard substrates.
Rhodaniridogorgia fragilis form whorls of 15 to c19 branches over a distance of 60 to 80 mm along the central axis.
The branches measure 22 to 2 mm in length and bear polyps every 6-7 mm to catch edible objects.
The polyps are 1-1.5 mm in diameter and extend 1-2 mm from the branch to the base of the tentacles.
Etymology of the genus name:
The genus name “Rhodaniridogorgia” comes from the Greek, “rhodanos” = wavy, undulating, “iridogorgia” stands for a beautiful, spirally coiled, chrysogorgiid octocoral.
Etymology
The species name “fragilis” stands for = easily broken, fragile, in recognition of the frustration of handling this specimen, whose branches easily break off from the central axis.
