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This species is currently known only from NW Pacific (Kamchatka and Kuril Islands). In our revision of Urticina species published in 2006 (see reference below) we misidentified it with European species Urticina crassicornis. These two species, European Urticina crassicornis and Pacific Urticina timuri are distinguished from all other Urticina species by absolutely smooth column which has no any traces of any kind of verrucae. The main difference between them is the mode of brooding: Urticina timuri oviparous, it releases eggs into a water column (a fact which we were able to confirm on the specimens which live in our cold-water aquarium for may years) while Urticina crassicornis broods juvenile anemone in the coelenteron. Molecular data also show that the specimens from Pacific and those from European and Atlantic locations belong to two different species.
Official description of Urticina timuri was published in our Atlas of Flora and Fauna of Matua Island (which is distributed for free). Nomenclatural note: the name Urticina timuri Sanamyan et Sanamyan, 2020 was made available via a reference to a description of Urticina crassicornis published by Sanamyan and Sanamyan in 2016 in accordance to the Article 13.1.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
Revision of Pacific species of Urticina:
SANAMYAN N.P., SANAMYAN K.E., 2006. The genera Urticina and Cribrinopsis (Anthozoa: Actiniaria) from the North-Western Pacific. Journal of Natural History, 40(7-8): 359-393.
Original description of Urticina timuri is on page 75 of Volume 1 of this book: Flora and Fauna of Matua Island (middle Kuril Islands) : the field guide. Volume 1. Sea / editors K.E. Sanamyan, N.P. Sanamyan. Cherepovets : OOO Intron, 2020. 495 p. [paper version printed 25.12.2020]
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