(photos of Chris Grossman, founder of diver.net website, USA: specimens from California)
This Californian species is poorly known. It lives buried in sand. It has 48 tentacles and characteristic "ruff", a region visible on photos outside the tentacles allowing generic identification. The species identification is problematic, we identify it as Actinostella bradleyi (also known as Oulactis bradleyi or Phyllactis bradleyi), although this also may be Actinostella californica (originally described as Oulactis californica by McMurrich in 1893 and also known as Phyllactis californica). It is highly possible that Actinostella bradleyi and Actinostella californica are synonyms, in this case valid name for the species will be Actinostella bradleyi because it is older.
Taxonomy:
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Order Actiniaria
