Anthothoe vagrans
Description 1
Habitat
Intertidal to 12m.
Column
Thin walled, no adhesive discs, light orange with dark brown stripes from top to bottom. Can emit white stinging threads from small lens-shaped holes on the white stripes on the middle third of column. 40mm high.
Oral disc
Often olive-brown but varies, 20mm diameter. Outside of the mouth is pink with red lines, and red inside.
Tentacles
4 whorls of numerous fine salmon pink to white tentacles.
Distribution
Endemic, North Island and Marlborough Sounds.
Edited version of Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961, Volume 41, 1908, p384
Art. XXXVI.—A Review of the New Zealand Actiniaria known to Science, together with a Description of Twelve New Species.
By F. G. A. Stuckey, M.A. :
Pedal-disc.—The ectoderm is thick, and presents no unusual feature. The mesoglœa is much “vacuolated,” and the endoderm is thin.
Column.—The colour is dirty-white and olive-brown in alternate longitudinal lines, or the whole may be dirty-white, or grey, or even pink. There is a circular muscle in the wall throughout its entire length carried on regular folds of the mesoglœa.
Tentacles.—These are very fine and threadlike. Their colour is salmon-pink, though in some specimens they are white. They are of different lengths in the different cycles. There are several cycles, but the tentacles are so numerous and crowded that it is impossible to make out how many cycles there are. Judging from cross-sections I should say there are four cycles. In structure the tentacles resemble those of the last species (S. nutrix), but there is a specially well-developed nervous layer.
Oral Disc.—Colour olive-brown generally, but there is considerable variation. The structure is identical with that of the tentacles, and closely resembling the same part of S. nutrix.
Stomodœum.—The colour is a rich pink, with darker-coloured red longitudinal lines. The inner edge of the mouth is also red. The stomodæum is freely everted, when the red lines, together with the edge of the mouth, form a rosette-like design on the disc. There are 2 siphonoglyphs.
Acontia.—These are extruded through lens-shaped cinclides, which are invisible except at the time of discharge. These cinclides appear to be on the white lines only, and to be limited to a zone encircling the middle third of the body..
Dimensions.—My largest specimens were 40 mm. high and 20 mm. in diameter, but I am told there are larger ones on the piles of the Queen's Wharf, Wellington.
Habits and Locality.—Professor H. B. Kirk has brought me specimens from Plimmerton. I myself have found the species in large numbers on the breastwork of the Thorndon Esplanade, Wellington Harbour, and on the piles of the baths. This anemone adheres so strongly that it is impossible to remove it without damage. It is attached also to shells of mussels, and this makes it possible to obtain good specimens.
References 1
- http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_41/rsnz_41_00_005520.html (as Sagartia vagrans)
- NZ Coastal Marine Invertebrates Vol 1, p161 by Steve de C. Cook
- The New Zealand Sea Shore John Morton and Michael Miller, 1968, plate 7 & p272
Synonyms:
- Actinothoe vagrans
- Sagartia vagrans
- Thoe vagrans
Sources and Credits
- (c) Tony Wills, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
