Relicanthus cf. daphneae ( Daly, 2006 )

Relicanthus cf. daphneae ( Daly, 2006) View in CoL

Fig. 2A View Fig .

Boloceroides daphneae Daly, 2006: 1241 ; Desbruyeres, Segonzac, Bright, 2006: 72.

Relicanthus daphneae View in CoL : Rodríguez et al., 2014: 7; Xiao et al., 2019: 1.

MATERIAL. LV-82-5, 55.2700ºN 167.2991ºE – 55.2738ºN 167.2974ºE, depth 3494– 3435 m, one specimen photographed; LV-82-6, 55.6972ºN 167. 1262ºE, depth 3948 m, one specimen photographed.

REMARKS. Relicanthus daphneae is a large characteristically looking rose-colored sea anemone with very long tentacles tapering to thin threads (estimated to be up to 40 cm in length). One specimen was photographed attached on the stalk of a glass sponge Hyalonema , covered with a colony of zoantharian Epizoanthus fatuus (on the southern slope of the Vulcanologov Massif), another appeared sitting directly on the bottom (in the small high in Komandorsky Basin). This very interesting species was reported for the first time in the Bering Sea and the current record is most northern and most deep-water one for this species (3435–3948 m). Previous records were from 13ºN to 23ºS on the East Pacific Rise, 32ºS Pacific Antarctic Ridge on the depths 2235–2650 m ( Daly, 2006; Desbruyeres et al., 2006) and from 27.25ºS South East Indian Ridge in Indian Ocean on the depth 3005 m ( Gerdes et al., 2021). Taxonomic position of this species is not clear (see Rodríguez et al., 2014; Xiao et al., 2019).