MXieuicanJAuscum - American Museum of Natural History

159 SQUIRES: ATLANTIC CORALS
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The several species placed in synonymy here have in common multilobate
pali. Although the usual condition for some of the species, e.g.,
P. confertus Pourtales, is bilobate pali, there is sufficient variation
within a single collection to warrant consolidation of the two-lobed
and three-lobed types. This species differs from the other common
Paracyathus of the Atlantic, P. pulchellus Philippi (=P. striata Philippi,
P. aequilamellosus Milne-Edwards and Haime, P. st-iatuts Duncan,
FIG. 4. Boulder fauna on a rippled sand bottom consisting of expanded
dendrophyllid-like corals. Note the shadows cast by the polyps. Tl-3-6 photograph,
508 meters, southwest of Brest, France, latitude 470 42' N., longitude
70 34'W.
P. insignis Duncan), in the condition of the pali. In the latter species,
the pali are not lobed and are conspicuously larger than the columellar
elements. A common type of this species has quadrangular pali, often
of some distinctness (Doderlein, 1913, figs. 38-44).
Both species are widely distributed in both the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean. Many species described from the Mediterranean by
Duncan (1873, 1879, pt. 2), including P. monilis, P. africanus, and P.
costatus, are probably based on variants or poorly preserved individuals
of P. defilippi.