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Abstract
Brazilian reef octocorals have been relatively poorly studied. The last major review was published in the early 1960s by F.M. Bayer. The current study includes a full historical and literature review of Brazilian reef octocorals and lists 17 species. Four new species are described: Muriceopsis metaclados, Leptogorgia pseudogracilis, Stephanogorgia rattoi and Trichogorgia brasiliensis. Two new synonyms are proposed: Olindagorgia gracilis (Verrill, 1868) with Olindagorgia marcgravii (Bayer, Citation1961), and Ellisella elongata (Pallas, Citation1766) with Ellisella barbadensis (Duchassaing and Michelotti, Citation1864). Current knowledge on Muriceopsis is included, but the Muriceopsis sulphurea complex needs a thorough revision. Whenever there is not a recent evaluation of a species, it is fully described and illustrated, its main synonymies are included, and distributional ranges are indicated. An identification key is provided.
Acknowledgements
We thank F. Bayer (USNM), M. Christoffersen (UFPb), W. Hartman (YPM), M. J. d'Hondt (MNHN), H. Levi (MCZ), for the possibility of studying material deposited in their institutions. We are grateful to J. Sanchez (Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá), S. Cairns (USNM), and anonymous reviewers for criticism to earlier versions of the manuscript. We also thank the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq), Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (FAPERJ), and Project Living Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone (REVIZEE), for grants and fellowships.
Notes
Supplementary material can be viewed online.