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Family: Eudendriidae
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Polyp: Colony extensively branched and bushy, polysiphonic on hydrocaulus and hydrocladia. Perisarc thick and brownish in older parts, thinner and colorless on the distal extremes, annulated or wrinkled at the base of branches and hydranth pedicels. Nematocysts are large heterotrichous anizorhiza in hydranth body, tentacles, hydrocladia and gonophores. Reproduction: Gonophores as fixed sporosacs, perisarc on gonophore pedicel extensively wrinkled; male gonophores with up to 5 chambers borne on reduced hydranths, with nematocysts on distal ends; female gonophores on reduced hydranths, bifid spadix curving over the egg. Ecology and Distribution: Preferred habitat are regions of high-energy waves, with rocky substratum. Previously recorded from the Mediterranean Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Atlantic Ocean. In Bocas del Toro collected in Swans Cay. Remarks: Spadix shed when eggs are fertilized, embryos get covered in perisarc capsules and are arranged irregularly. Similar taxa: Eudendrium cunninghami Bocas Species Database Distribution: Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama. Characteristics: Eudendrium carneum colonies are bushy, branched and as tall as 10 cm. Hydranths have a large hypostome (mouth) and about 30 filiform tentacles in one whorl. All Eudendrium species have lost the medusa and reproduce by sporosacs. |