Replacement Name for Paracis (Cnidaria: Octocorallia: Paramuriceidae) with a Revision and Re-Description of the Japanese Species and Description of Two New Genera and Species from the Indo-Pacific

Abstract

In this paper, the type material of all five Japanese Paracis species (P. ijimai (Kinoshita, 1909), P. miyajimai (Kinoshita, 1909), P. pustulata (Wright and Studer, 1889), P. spinifera (Nutting, 1912), P. squamata (Nutting, 1910)), two Placogorgia species (P. japonica (Nutting, 1912) and P. placoderma (Nutting, 1910)), Pseudothesea foliata Aurivillius, 1931, and the type of the genus Paracis, P. orientalis (Ridley, 1882) are re-examined and re-described. The sclerites of the different species are depicted using scanning electron microscopy. All Japanese Paracis and related species treated here belong to four genera: Paracis, Kükenthal, 1919, Imbricacis Matsumoto and Ofwegen gen. nov., Pseudoparacis Matsumoto and Ofwegen gen. nov., and Pseudothesea Kükenthal, 1919. A replacement name for the genus Paracis as Neoacis is introduced because there is a senior homonym. A total of eight new species are described: Neoacis bayeri sp. nov., N. marianaensis sp. nov., N. ofwegeni sp. nov., Imbricacis foliata sp. nov., I. hawaiiensis sp. nov., Pseudoparacis tanseii sp. nov., Pseudothesea satsumaensis sp. nov., and Pseudothesea tokaraensis sp. nov. Pseudothesea foliata Aurivillius, 1931 is synonymised with Pseudoparacis japonica (Nutting, 1912). We have designated a lectotype for Paracis squamata (Nutting, 1910), which is now revised as Imbricacis squamata. Keys to the genera Neoacis, Imbricacis, Pseudoparacis, and Pseudothesea are presented.