Family Plexauridae

Remarks.

The examined specimen of Bebryce cinerea displays a branching, planar growth form, approximately 67 mm in height with stems reaching 2–3 mm width. The colony was yellow in life and yellow-brown when preserved in ethanol. The calyces are cylindrical and reach lengths of 2 mm with 1 mm widths and are more or less crowded along two sides of the branches in a loosely alternating manner. Most of the polyps are partly contracted, but are apparently retractile (Deichmann 1936).
The outer coenenchyme contains small, cup-shaped rosette sclerites with warty bases, and are oriented with the concavity facing away from the axis. The inner coenenchyme contains some rod-like spindles and warty stellate plates with a central knob or boss. The knobbed plates vary in shape from 4-6 armed stars to multi-lobed amoeboid masses. The calyx contains numerous echinulate rods projecting upward around the rim, which are only visible when the polyps are retracted. These rods have one tuberculated, flattened, slightly lobed end; the opposite end is bluntly rounded, and occasionally flattened and/or bifurcated at the tip. The anthocodiae contain curved, elongate rods in a collaret and points arrangement. All sclerites are colorless.
The specimen examined for this work is the only record north of the Bahamas on the east coast of the Unites States and was collected, attached to a rock, by a manned submersible.

Atlantic distribution: South Carolina, 76 m; Gulf of Mexico, 69–274 m; Bahamas, 4–329 m; Caribbean 51–549 m; Panama, 64-128 m; Venezuela, 77–86 m (Deichmann, 1936; NMNH collections; SERTC collection).

Figure 1. Bebryce grandis, live specimen (SERTC 2856) attached on rock (image courtesy Leslie Sautter/Project Oceanica)

Figure 2. Polyps of Bebryce grandis, live
specimen (SERTC 2856) (image courtesy Jerry McLelland/USM)

Figure 3. Bebryce cinerea preserved specimen (SERTC 2856). Scale bar = 1 cm.

Figure 4. Sclerites of Bebryce cinerea (SERTC 2856).a-d) Cup shaped rosettes from outer cortex;
e-h) knobbed stellate plates from inner cortex; i-k) curved rods from anthocodia. Scale bar for a-d = 10µm;
e-h = 50 µm; i-k = 100 µm. Scale bar for a-d = 10µm; e-h - 50 µm; i-k = 100 µm.

Figure 5. Calyx of Bebryce cinerea (SERTC 2856) showing orientation of cup-shaped rosettes in coenenchyme
and crown. Scale bar = 0.5 mm