Urticina coriacea (Cuvier, 1798)

Common name(s): Leathery anemone, Stubby rose anemone, Scarlet anemone, Red bead anemone, Buried Urticina
Synonyms: Tealia lofotensis Urticina coriacea
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Subclass Zoantharia
Order Actiniaria (Anemones)
Suborder Nynantheae
Family Actiniidae
Urticina coriacea at about 13 m depth near Keystone jetty.
(Photo by: Kirt Onthank, August 2007)
Description:   As with all Urticina, this species has no acontia but does have tubercles on the column wall.  The greenish oral disk has no radiating white stripes, and its margin has no sphaerules.  The tentacles, which occur in 4 whorls, are stubby, blunt, and may have some faint but broad lighter colored cross-bands or may be green, pink, red, or blue.  This species has a red column with red tubercles which accumulate sand and gravel and are usually not in rows.  There is no green on the column.  Its oral disk and tentacles are a mix of red and greenish-gray.  It usually is partly buried in coarse sand or gravel.   Up to 15 cm tall and 10 cm diameter.

How to Distinguish from Similar Species:   Of anemones with a red column, Urticina lofotensis and U. columbiana have white tubercles arranged in rows.  U. crassicornis may have a red column (usually with some green) but it does not accumulate sand and gravel and its tentacles usually have broad cross-bands. Urticina piscivora also has a red column but its inconspicuous tubercles do not accumulate sand and gravel. Cribrinopsis fernaldi has spherules at the margin of the oral disk and its tentacles have fine dark red zigzag bands across them.  Most of the other red-columned anemones do not bury in sand or gravel.

Geographical Range: Alaska to southern California; Europe (circumpolar)

Depth Range:  Low intertidal to 45 m

Habitat:  Buried in coarse sand or gravel in tidepools, subtidal, may be on rock walls subtidally.

Biology/Natural History:  This species usually is attached to a rock below the sediment with only the oral disk exposed, or subtidal individuals may be attached directly to a rock and not living in sediment.  Predators include the leather star Dermasterias imbricata.  This species may be a species complex.


 
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References:

Dichotomous Keys:
  Flora and Fairbanks, 1967 (as Tealia coriacea)
  Kozloff 1987, 1996
  Smith and Carlton, 1975 (as Tealia coriacea)
 
 

General References:
  American Fisheries Society, 2002
  Harbo, 1999
  Kozloff, 1993
  Morris et al., 1980 (as Tealia coriacea)
  Niesen, 1997
  O'Clair and O'Clair, 1998
  Ricketts et al., 1985 (as Tealia coriacea)

Scientific Articles:

Web sites:

General Notes and Observations:  Locations, abundances, unusual behaviors:
 

U coriacea
Another individual.  Photo by Kirt Onthank 2007


Authors and Editors of Page:
Dave Cowles (2008):  Created original page
CSS coding for page developed by Jonathan Cowles (2007)