Kadosactis abyssicola

Erling Svensen Pictures from yesterday. This anemone lives very, very exposed, always very shallow (the upper 3 meters), and grows only to 1 cm in diameter. Any suggestions?

Steve McWilliam Can people post locations with pictures please ??

Erling Svensen Norway, South West coast - look at map.

Erling Svensen Dawn, this one is not S. elegans. They are always the same in many locations, very shallow, and very exposed. I add a picture of S. elegans from the same location. They look very different from this one. Also this unknown one has the same colours and do not have the variations as elegans have.

Peter H van Bragt Possibly Cereus pedunculatus!

Erling Svensen The C. pedunculatus has more than 200 tentacles, this one have less than 100. So??? And I never see it bigger than 1 cm - disc diameter.

Chris Wood Certainly a Sagartid anemone of some sort, but not one I recognise from the UK. The closest thing would be Sagartia troglodytes on appearance alone but the habitat is wrong - though it must have got the troglodytes name from some where so perhaps it can occur in shallow surgy and cave habitats as well as in areas with sediment, which is where we usually find it.

Chris Wood Of course the number of tentacles in a small specimen can be misleading as they can add rows as the grow. Mind you it doesn't look like Cereus as we see it either and again the habitat is all worng.

Marco Faasse I don't know what species this is. But bear in mind that: Sagartia ornata is a small Sagartia species (base max 15 mm) with much less variable colours than S. troglodytes and S elegans, usually shades of green or brown, and able to withstand much more lowering of salinity than either of the other Sagartias. We find it here in the intertidal zone and brackish waters of relatively high salinity. Can there be freshwater influence in the upper 3m (melting snow etc.) at Egersund, Erling Svensen? In contrast to both other Sagartias S. ornata is a species bearing live young. Escape of young specimens through the mouth would be a confirmation.

Marco Faasse Furthermore, in S. ornata I often see light-coloured vertical lines on the lower column, rising up from the rim of the base and breaking up into a row of dots. I belive in S. elegans the dots are scattered randomly.

Erling Svensen Thanks Marco. But Our exposed localities are not influenced by riverwater or brackish water. The salinity is high. I find this species ONLY in very exposed localities fare out from the harbour at the outermost islands. So - I do not know. I would like to sample some and send - but to whom? The vertical lines could be seen on this specie (Picture), so it could be ornata. But I would like to have this confirmed.

Erling Svensen Chris - could I sample some and send to you?

Erling Svensen One more thing - I NEVER see them bigger than 1 cm across. So I do not have a clue of what I see. Best would be to collect and send to somebody.

Erling Svensen Could this be Kadosactis abyssicola? I have the Danmarks fauna book from 1945 and I have looked in the Distribution of marine, benthic macroorganisms in Norway. This is the only one that I feel it could be?

Chris Wood Erling. I am afraid I am not a taxonomist and wouldn't have the facilities to deal with a sample. Sorry.

Erling Svensen Anybody that know the sea anemone named Kadosactis abyssicola?