A New Species of <I>Leptogorgia </I>(Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Octocorallia) from the Mexican Pacific Coast

Abstract

The gorgoniid genus Leptogorgia is found along the Pacific coast of Mexico; 10 species have been reported from Baja California and Acapulco. Leptogorgia ena sp. nov. is a new shallow-water species found at 5-12 m depth at various high energy rocky sites along the coast of San Pedro Pochutla District, Oaxaca. Specimens of the new species were collected by scuba diving and the morphological characters were analyzed and illustrated under light and scanning electron microscopy. The new species can be distinguished from the others by the very small colony, dominance of wide capstans, barrels and double heads, low occurrence of spindles, spindles measuring &lt; 0.10 mm, and presence of tentacular sclerites. With this report, the genus Leptogorgia increases to 11 species for Mexico and 26 for the eastern Pacific.