Whip gorgonian

Scientific name : Junceella

Unbranched gorgonian, whip shaped, over 2 m long. The small polyps are all around the stem or in longitudinal rows. They can contract but not withdraw completely. When they are contract, they look like small scales.
Variable colour, white to yellow, grey, brown, red. Easy to identify amongst gorgonians due to the unbranched colony shape. It could be confused with the wire corals (black corals) Cirrhipathes. The polyps of the latter (an hexacoral) have 6 triangular smooth tentacles, never completely withdrawn, giving the colony a hairy appearence. Junceella polyps, when expanded, are the typical octocoral polyps (8 pinnate tentacles). When contracted they look like small scales.
Cirrhipathes colonies grew in a spiral shape, while Junceella colonies are straightforward and bent at the tip.

Associated organisms
On this gorgonian the commensal goby Bryaninops amplus and the parassite ovulids Phenacovolva spp. can be found.

Author MASSIMO BOYER Id: 1

Author MASSIMO BOYER Id: 2