ALCYONACEA: ALCYONIIDAE
Genus: Eleutherobia Puetter, 1900. Nineteen species.
Description: Commonly digitiform - cylindrical or clavate to capitate, sometimes lobate to digitate. Sclerites are mostly derived from radiates, although spindles, barrels, tuberculate spheroids, rods and crosses sometimes present. Color permanent and variable: orange, red, pink, yellow, white or gray, sometimes bicolored or mottled.
Characteristics: Axooxanthellate. Three species have been oberved to be bioluminescent (green light) - the only soft corals currently known to exhibit bioluminescence. Colonies of one species provide homes for polychaete worms at the bases of the capitate polyparies.
Distribution: South Africa and Indo-West Pacific (southern Africa to Japan and Tonga); 10-220 m depth.
References: Williams, G.C. 2003. Zoologische Verhandelingen, Leiden 345: 419-436.