ANTHOZOA: ALCYONARIA 



By Frederick M. Bayer, U. S. National Museum 



The Alcyonaria of the Gulf of Mexico ^ are little 

 known. No systematic work treats them in 

 detail, and the preparation of such an account 

 must await more extensive collections from the 

 entire region. Even papers mentioning occasional 

 Gulf species are few and, with perhaps two or 

 three exceptions, deal only witli those found in the 

 extreme southeastern part (i. e., the Straits of 

 Florida, the Florida Keys, and Dry Tortugas). 

 Notable among these is the series of reports by 

 Bielschowsky (1929), Kukenthal (1916), Kunze 

 (1916), Riess (1929), and Toeplitz (1929), pub- 

 lished imder the general title, Die Gorgonarien 

 Westindiens in the supplement volumes 11 and 

 16 of the Zoologische Jahrbucher. Professor A. E. 

 Verrill (1864. 1869, 1883) early recorded the 

 presence, mostly in the lower Gulf, of a few alcyo- 

 narians ; and some later work by Stiasny, especially 



the two Siboga supplements (1935, 1937), adds to 

 the list of species known from the Tortugas area. 



Explorations in the Gulf of Mexico have not 

 been extensive, and collections are correspondingly 

 inadequate. The exploratory vessels, Albatross, 

 Fish Hawk, Pelican, Blake, Bibb, and Bache have 

 all made dredge hauls in the Gulf, but the records 

 of only the last three have been published, these 

 in the classic monograph on the alcyonarians of 

 the western Atlantic by Dr. Elisabeth Deichmann 

 (1936). Exploratory trawling is currently being 

 carried on by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 M/V Oregon, but very few alcyonarians have so 

 far been seen. 



Present knowledge of the alcyonarians of the 

 Gulf of Mexico is summarized in the accompanying 

 table (table 1), which also indicates the distribu- 

 tion outside of the Gulf of the species concerned. 



Table 1. — Geographical dislribulion of alcyonarians known from the Gulf of Mexico 



A. Arctic to Cape Cod. 



B. C. Cod to C. Hatteras. 



C. C. Hatteras to C. Canaveral. 



D. Bermuda. 



E. C. Carnaveral to Sombrero Key. 



a. Low water to 10 fathoms. 



b. 10-99 fathoms. 



1. Bayer 1949. 



2. Bayer 19.52. 



3. Bielschowsky 1929. 



4. Carv 1906. 



5. Cary 1918. 



6. Deichmann 1936. 



7. Oordon 1925. 



8. Heilprin 1890. 



9. Kiikenthal 191fi. 



• Published with the permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. 



' For the purposes of this summary, the geographical boundaries of the 

 Gulf of Mexico will be taken to include, in addition to the usual land masses. 



a line drawn from Cape Sable, Fla., due south to the coast of Cuba, and 

 another from Cape San Antonio, Cuba, to Cape Catoche, Yucatdn. This 

 delimitation is purely arbitrary and does not coincide with faunistic bound- 

 aries 



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