Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2004, Side 294

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Ceriantharia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa)
from the Faroe Islands
Koraldýrini Ceriantharia í føroyskum sjóøki
Tina N. Molodtsova
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 36 Nakhimovsky Prospekt,
Moscow 117851, Russia. Email: tina@sio.rssi.ru
Úrtak
I greinini verður greitt frá um ceriantariu-ormar í
føroyskum havøki og í grannahøvum. í BIOFAR
tilfarinum vóru tvey sløg av botntengdum ceriantariu-
ormum: Cerianthus vogti Danielssen, 1890, ið fyrr er
funnin í Føroyum, og so eitt minni slag Botrucnidifer
norvegicus Carlgren 1912, sum higartil bert er funnið
í Tróndheimsfjørðinum. Eitt triðja slag, sum áður er
funnið í Føroyum: Arachnactis albida M. Sars, 1846,
var ikki í BIOFAR tilfarinum. Ein neyv lýsing av
Cerianthus vogti Danielssen, 1890 er eisini gjørd.
Abstract
The cerianthid fauna from the Faroe Islands and adjacent
regions is described and the taxonomy and systematics
forthearea isprovided based on theBIOFAR samples. In
the BIOFAR samples, two species of benthic cerianthids
were found: Cerianthus vogti Danielssen, 1890, already
reported from the Faroes; and a dwarf cerianthid,
Botrucnidifer norvegicus Carlgren 1912, previously
recorded from the Trondheim Fjord (Norway) only.
The third species reported from the Faroe Islands - the
planktonic larvae Arachnactis albida M. Sars, 1846
- was not found in the BIOFAR samples. The diagnosis
of C. vogti Danielssen, 1890 is given.
Previous investigations
Our knowledge about cerianthids from the
Faroe Islands is not very extensive. Only a
few papers deal with cerianthids from this
region. The main reason for this lack of in-
formation is not due to the rareness of ce-
rianthids in the North Atlantic. Conversely,
in some habitats cerianthids are among the
predominating groups (Molodtsova and
Malakhov, 1995; Jensen, 1992). However,
due to their strong longitudinal muscula-
ture, cerianthids are able to contract quick-
ly and hide themselves immediately in the
recesses of long vertical tubes, so that it is
very hard to collect them by such traditional
gear as trawls and drags. Moreover, it is al-
most impossible to use underwater photos
for determination of cerianthids, because
of the high uniformity of their external ap-
pearance. The colour patterns of the bodies
and tentacles of cerianthids are very vari-
able and their smooth bodies have no ad-
ditional structures suitable for distinguish-
Fróðskaparrit 51. bók 2004: 292-297