How many Entacmaea sp are there?

[Anonymous]

Just browsing a few sites in Japan and they have a number of different BTA, by the looks of things. One called Coral anemone and one called Tamaitadaki anemone. If I put them into Google in the original Japanese to try and come up the Latin, it throw up Entacmaea ramsayi and Entacmaea actinostoloides but I've yet to see Entacmaea quadricolor. Is that even the proper Latin name, or just a marketing name?

This is what they have for Tamaitadaki anemone (which seems to come up as Entacmaea ramsayi)

And this is what they have for Coral anemone (Entacmaea actinostoloides), which just looks like a RBTA to me.

 

[Ben1]

I would have thought the first one was a frogspawn if I couldnt see the foot at all.

 

[Anonymous]

I know - it's pretty unusual isn't it? But from the size and resolution of the pict, it's hard to get a good idea of its appearance in the flesh.

 

[Anonymous]

I also found reference to Entacmaea medusivora which was described in 1991 , credited to Fautin and Fitt. Most laymans reference seems to indicate it is a montoypic genus with E.quadricolor the sole species but did find reference to E.ramsayi and the aforementioned E.medusivora.

If you want to see something really cool check out the Ido-Pacific Condylactis species. Here's a pic of one I found on a Swiss site:

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Goldstein. That's Condy's really quite something! 8O

 

[Anonymous]

given that anemones of the same specie can have a different 'morphology'(bubble tips vs non bubbled, etc), and/or coloration, how are 'they' determining what constitutes a 'different' species of entacmea?

 

[Anonymous]

That's what I don't know and find quite odd. At least one of these sites refuses to specify what types of acro they're selling, given the difficulty of being sure. Maybe these common names are used with less direct link to the Latin/exact species than I'm assuming... :?