Ovabunda macrospiculata (Gohar 1940)

The neotype is 20 mm high. Its stalk is 10 mm wide at its base, splitting into three branches, 7, 5 and 5 mm long; 5, 4 and 4 mm wide at the base and 10, 6 and 7 mm wide at the uppermost part, respectively. Polyp’s body reaches up to 2 mm and tentacles up to 5 mm, bearing three, occasionally two, rows of pinnules. The pinnules are 1 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, with less than a pinnule-width space between them, and there are 15–17 pinnules in the outermost row on each side of the tentacle. The sclerites are Ovabunda-type, both regular and pear-shaped, measuring 0.015–0.025 × 0.023–0.041 mm (n = 34, Fig. 17a, b). Occasionally two sclerites are fused, reaching 0.041 mm in maximal diameter (Fig. 17c). The other specimens (ZMTAU Co 35789, 35790, 35791) are of similar size to the neotype; all with three rows of pinnules aligned on both sides of the tentacles, and 14–18, 14–17 and 14–17 pinnules in the outermost row, respectively. Their sclerites are of the Ovabunda-type and vary in shapes from regular to irregular, pear-shaped or fused. Their size ranges through 0.016–0.025 × 0.023–0.043 mm; 0.014–0.03 × 0.019–0.043 mm (Fig. 18) and 0.015–0.027 × 0.022–0.046 mm (Fig. 19) in diameter, respectively (n = 21 for each colony).

Red Sea: Gulf of Aqaba, southern tip of Sinai Peninsula.