Black corals (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) from Brazil: an overview

摘要

There are few records of black corals (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) from Brazil, where there are previous reports of only 18 species from the families Antipathidae, Myrio-pathidae, and Schizopathidae. Most of these records are from the deep-sea, especially from southwestern Atlantic seamounts and the Brazilian continental shelf margins. Most specimens were collected between 13° and 22°S, during a study to survey the living resources off Brazil (REVIZEE Program), carried out by the Brazilian government. This paper is an historical overview concerning the geographic and bathymet-ric distribution of black coral species reported off Brazil. The genus Chrysopathes is herein reported for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean and the family Aphanipathidae (Subfamilies Acanthopathinae and Aphanipathinae) is reported for the first time in the southwestern Atlantic.