anemone Artemidactis victrix

Artemidactis victrix is found in the Ross Sea, South Georgia Island, and Burdwood Bank at depths from 75 to 439 meters [1,4]. A. victrix can be up to thirteen centimeters long (preserved) with the pedal disc being 6.5 centimeters wide [1]. The column of A. victrix is smooth and cylindrical, dilating into a wide expanded upper portion which can fold backwards and hide the upper part of the column, with tentacles pointing downward in a fringe at the edge of the oral disc [2]. The oral disc of A. victrix is much wider than its column [2]. A. victrix is white, yellowish-white, or red in color [1].



Artemidactis victrix has up to three hundred tentacles arranged in four or five cycles [1,2,4]. Larger specimens of A. victrix have a tentacular croiwn diameter of 8.4 centimeters and tentacle length of 2.1 centimeters [2]. A. victrix tentacles are finely striated and taper from a broad base to a blunt or pointed tip [2].



A. victrix is found in McMurdo Sound's second and third benthic faunal zone below 15 meters depth [3].

1: Further Zoological Results of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901-1903. Volume 2, Number 3. Actiniaria and Zoantharia. O Carlgren.Stockholm : PA Norstedt & Soner, 1927; 2: Coelenterata. Part I. Actinaria. TA Stephenson. British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910. Natural History Reports. Zoology. Volume V. Coelenterata. London: British Museum (Natural History), 1918; 3: Antarctic Ecology, Volume 1. MW Holdgate, ed. NY: Academic Press, 1970. pp.244-258; 4: A Survey of the Ptychodactiaria, Corallimorpharia and Actiniaria. O. Carlgren. Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri AB, 1949. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar, 4th Series, Band 1, No. 1

Identification from photo only and not from collected specimen. Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photographs ©Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan), Bjørn Gulliksen (UWPhoto ANS), & Jim Mastro. Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan), Bjørn Gulliksen (UWPhoto ANS), & Jim Mastro.