Neil McDaniel, Kanada
Info
Octineon suecicum is a small cold-water sea anemone whose foot column reaches a height of around 1 cm and a diameter of 2 mm in large specimens, which is not particularly conspicuous at first glance.
With fully expanded polyps, however, the anemone reaches a (head diameter) of up to 20cm, whereby the translucent tentacles are not so easy to recognize in the water.
The tentacles are arranged in three cycles on the outer part of the oral disk, usually up to 24, but occasionally up to 30 due to duplications that sometimes occur in the second cycle.
In the habitat, the small sea anemones form numerous tightly packed clusters of individuals, as can be seen very clearly in the great photo by Neil McDaniel.
The genus Octineon is the only member of the family Octineonidae and currently comprises three species:
Octineon lindahli (Carpenter in Carpenter & Jeffreys, 1871)
Octineon suecicum Carlgren, 1940
Octineon chilense Carlgren, 1959.
In 2018, Octineon suecicum was recorded in British Columbia, Canada.
This record of a member of the genus Octineon from British Columbia is the first record in half a century since Octineon was last recorded. This record is geographically distant from all previously known locations (Spain, Norway and Chile).
An interesting result of the study was that all anemones were female.
We would like to thank Neil McDaniel for the first photo of Octineon suecicum.
With fully expanded polyps, however, the anemone reaches a (head diameter) of up to 20cm, whereby the translucent tentacles are not so easy to recognize in the water.
The tentacles are arranged in three cycles on the outer part of the oral disk, usually up to 24, but occasionally up to 30 due to duplications that sometimes occur in the second cycle.
In the habitat, the small sea anemones form numerous tightly packed clusters of individuals, as can be seen very clearly in the great photo by Neil McDaniel.
The genus Octineon is the only member of the family Octineonidae and currently comprises three species:
Octineon lindahli (Carpenter in Carpenter & Jeffreys, 1871)
Octineon suecicum Carlgren, 1940
Octineon chilense Carlgren, 1959.
In 2018, Octineon suecicum was recorded in British Columbia, Canada.
This record of a member of the genus Octineon from British Columbia is the first record in half a century since Octineon was last recorded. This record is geographically distant from all previously known locations (Spain, Norway and Chile).
An interesting result of the study was that all anemones were female.
We would like to thank Neil McDaniel for the first photo of Octineon suecicum.
