A New Black Coral (anthozoa: Antipatharia) from a Reef Wall Environment in Jamaica

A new species of antipatharian coral is described from Jamaica. Antipathes rubusiformis forms sprawling colonies, which spread sideways beneath overhangs on steep cliffs below 20 m depth. Colonies are attached by multiple holdfasts that develop at the tips of recurved branches where they contact the substratum. Branches are thin, often curved and set at wide angles; branching is irregular. Axial spines are triangular, compressed, and finely papillose on the upper third of their surface. The species resembles Antipathes lenta, Pourtalès (1871), from which it differs by having longer, papillose spines and less regular branching, and Antipathes umbratica Opresko (1996), which forms more robust colonies with a single holdfast and longer spines. Vertical environments and overhangs on deep (> 20 m) coral reef escarpments are characterized by reduced light intensities and a rich encrusting biota of bryozoans, sponges, and crustose algae (Jackson and Winston, 1982). In the Caribbean, typical fan-shaped or tree-like antipatharian colonies of species such as Antipathes atlantica Gray and Antipathes caribbeana Opresko project outwards into the water column from such near-vertical substrata, presumably to maximize suspension feeding opportunities by exposure to mainstream currents (Warner, 1981). Their only connection with the substratum is at a single large holdfast. The unusual feature of the new species described here is that it has a much closer association with the encrusting biota. It grows sideways rather than growing out into the mainstream flow, and clings to the substratum by means of many small holdfasts instead of by one large one. In this respect it resembles a scrambling terrestrial plant, such as a blackberry or bramble, rather than a typical black coral.