Epiactis thompsoni (Sea Anemones of New Zealand)

Epiactis thompsoni

Description ²

A relatively large anemone
Habitat
Rock pools, sheltered sandy coasts.

Column
Wider at the base and top, with characteristic red and white stripes running from top to bottom. Up to 70mm high.

Oral disc
Red to reddish brown. 50mm diameter.

Tentacles
Up to 60 dull green, brown to pale grey tentacles, sometimes tipped in pink/mauve. About 25mm long.

Distribution
Endemic, throughout NZ, more common in the South Island.

Edited version of Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961, Volume 7, 1874, p280
Art. XLI.—Description of a new Species of Actinia.
By Professor M. Coughtrey, M.D. :

A lateral grower.—Body, 2.5cm long; striped vermilion and whitish-yellow, nearly all red, striæ entire; peristomic rim wide; tentacles round on trans. sect., conical in general form, 12mm long; shafts yellowish-white, tips purple, latter slightly shaded off as it passes into the shaft of tentacle, in three alternate rows of about twenty each.

At very low water, Deborah Bay, Port Chalmers, rocks.

Two others, one pale, half-inch long; striped vermilion-red and white; tentacles not tipped with purple; the other like A. messembryanthemum of Britain.

Named in honour of Captain Thompson, harbour-master.

Edited version of Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961, Volume 41, 1908, pp370-373
Art. XXXV.—On Two Anemones found in the Neighbourhood of Wellington—Leiotealia thompsoni and Sagartia albocincta.
By F. G. A. Stuckey, M.A. :

Pedal-disc.—Adhesive to rocks and boulders. It is rather wider than the column.

Column.—Cylindrical in shape. Its height can be varied in a rather marked manner in proportion to the diameter of the oral disc. The colour is white and red in alternate longitudinal lines, which, however, are not generally entire. The colours are deposited in patches, the red in small irregular spots, the white marks being more or less elliptical. This gives the surface of the column a somewhat chequered appearance under a lens of low power. There is a distinct ridge or collar round the top of the column. The colour of preserved specimens completely disappears, when the wall is seen to be thrown into parallel ridges which lie close together, running round the body of the animal like hoops round a cask. Each of these folds is wrinkled or pleated, the pleats being so close together and so nearly in line as to almost present the appearance of longitudinal ridges.

Tentacles.—These are arranged in three whorls—10 in the first or inner, 20 in the second, 30 in the third. This arrangement gives the appearance of their being placed in groups of six, thus: Each tentacle is conical in shape, and very stout. All the tentacles are equal in size. In colour they are of a dull white, with a mauve tip. In a few specimens, which, it is worth noting, were all obtained from Island Bay, the mauve tip was wanting, and in these cases the longitudinal markings of the body-wall appear to be entire. One specimen had light-brown tentacles. There is a pore at the tip of each tentacle.

Oral Disc.—The colour is reddish-brown, marked in radiating lines by the insertions of the mesenteries. The mouth is set on a darker-coloured prominent peristome, round which is a depression. There are two siphonoglyphs marked by pink tubercles.

Œsophagus.—The colour is a dull white, with brighter lines at the insertions of the mesenteries.

Dimensions.—A good specimen would be as much as 6–7 cm. in height and 4–5 cm. in breadth; tentacles, 2.5 cm.

Locality and Habits.—The species is apparently littoral, being found just above and below low-water mark, attached to the rocks and to loose stones. It is apparently fairly well distributed on the coast of New Zealand, but is not very numerous in any locality. It is more plentiful at Plimmerton than at any other place so far as I know. It has been found at most places-along the coast between Plimmerton and Wellington. Professor Coughtrey's specimens were found in Otago Harbour.

Summary of The New Zealand Sea Shore John Morton and Michael Miller, 1968, p158-9 :
Distributed from Wellington south, found in deep, sheltered, rock pools, sometimes in course gravel. Red and white striped column with a collar at the top, oral disc red to red-brown. 60 or so light grey or green tentacles , sometimes pink tipped.

References ²

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