REDISCOVERY OF AN ENIGMATIC OCTOCORAL, PSEUDOGORGIA GODEFFROYI KOLLIKER, FROM SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA AND A DISCUSSION ON ITS SYSTEMATIC POSITION

Abstract

Specimens of an octocoral of blade-like form, recently collected by Mrs. Jeanette E. WATSON of the National Museum of Victoria from eastern south coasts of Australia, have been examined and revealed to be Pseudogorgia godeffroyi KOLLIKER, that was once reported in 1870 from St. Vincent Gulf in South Australia, but has never been recorded again for nearly a century and has been forgotten and neglected in recent treatments of the Octocorallia. Concerning its systematic position, KOLLIKER himself considered to be intermediate between Gorgonacea, Alcyonacea and Pennatulacea, but did not suggest a family affiliation. A few later authors treated this genus have attributed it to the Telesto-allies, though it is suspectable that they referred wholly to KOLLIKER's original description. The outstanding characteristics that a colony has a single axial polyp which alone has the gastric cavity extending to the base of the colony as a distinct axial canal, short lateral polyps imbedded in the spiculiferous coenenchyme, no axis and no creeping stolon decline to ascribe Pseudogorgia godeffroyi to any Octocorallian taxa currently diagnosed. The present octocoral is regarded to deserve criteria of a special order within the Octocorallia, apart from the Telestacea, and for this we propose to establish a family Pseudogorgiidae and further a new order Gastraxonacea as an intermediate form between Telestacea and Gorgonacea.