(photos of ROV Comanche 18 NSCMB FEB RAS [Russia] and Nadya Sanamyan: the specimens on the methane seep site covered by the bacterial mat in the Bering Sea and in aquarium.)
Originally this species was described by Oscar Carlgren in 1940 from the Gulf of California (27°04N, 111°54W), it was found there attached to a Murex shell inhabited by a pagurid and collected at 73 m.
In 2012 Eash-Loucks and Fautin stated that the original description lacks an
illustration and many anatomical details and designated a neotype for this species. Very unfortunately, the specimen they selected for the neotype (collected far from the type locality and from much greater depth)
appear to be not conspecific with the original Carlgren’s specimen from Gulf of California (detailed discussion is in our paper linked below). This fact makes a situation around the application of the name "Sagartiogeton californicus" very peculiar: this name is currently applied to a deep-water species widely distributed in the North Pacific (photos of which you see on this webpage) but not to the original Carlgren’s species from Gulf of California. If similar anemones will be found on the Murex shell in the Gulf of California it would be very interesting to examine it to clarify
nomenclatural and taxonomic problems created by unnecessary neotype designation.
Details on this species can be foung in our paper: Sanamyan N.P., Sanamyan K.E., Bocharova E.S., Morozov T.B., Galkin S.V., 2023. Sea anemones (Actiniaria, Corallimorpharia and Zoantharia) from the Western Bering Sea (Northwest Pacific). Invertebrate Zoology, 2023, 20(1): 27-56.
Taxonomy:
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Order Actiniaria
