Annals of the South African MuseumAnnale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum . rying numbers of globular or ovoid spheroids andradiates. Some spindles may be distinctly clubbed. Most sclerites do not exceed0,25 mm in length. Colony colour extremely variable; often vivid purple, butcan be pink, white, golden yellow, orange, or dark smoke-grey to dark are white or somewhat translucent. Some colonies may be mottled withtwo colours such as purple and white. The purple pigment is alcohol-soluble andvaries from magenta or red-purple to blue-purple. Distribution Endemic to southern Africa;
Annals of the South African MuseumAnnale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum . rying numbers of globular or ovoid spheroids andradiates. Some spindles may be distinctly clubbed. Most sclerites do not exceed0,25 mm in length. Colony colour extremely variable; often vivid purple, butcan be pink, white, golden yellow, orange, or dark smoke-grey to dark are white or somewhat translucent. Some colonies may be mottled withtwo colours such as purple and white. The purple pigment is alcohol-soluble andvaries from magenta or red-purple to blue-purple. Distribution Endemic to southern Africa; known from Saldanha Bay on the west coast, toRichards Bay in Natal; littoral to 90 m in depth (Williams in press a). This is oneof the most common and conspicuous octocorals of the rocky intertidal and shallowsublittoral of southern Africa. Type locality Cape St Blaize near Mossel Bay. Remarks Hickson (1904) erroneously determined Alcyonium purpureum from MosselBay, South Africa. Thomson (1910) described A. fauri from Cape St Blaize, SOFT CORALS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA 281. Fig. 15. Scanning electron micrographs of Alcyonium fauri Thomson, 1910; coenenchymalsclerites. A. 0,17 mm. B. mm. C. 0,28 mm. D. mm. E. mm. F. Detail of surface tuberculation from a single sclerite: total length of micro-graph = 0,052 mm. H. Detail of surface tuberculation from sclerite shown in F: total length of micrograph = 0,054 mm. 282 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM South Africa. However, Liittschwager (1922), not recognizing that Thomsonsand Hicksons material were conspecific, applied the new name, A. fallax, sinceA. purpureum was found to be used previously by Lamarck (1836) for a speciesfrom Australia. Broch (1939: 8) observed many intergrading features andconsidered A. purpureum of Hickson and A. fauri to be conspecific, thuseliminating the need for the name A. fallax. I agree with Broch and considerA. purpureum of Hickson and A. fallax as synonyms of A. fauri. The genusP
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