Table 2.

The morphological measuring data of the specimens of Metallogorgia. “–” means nonexistent or meaningless data.

Characters/ Specimens	MBM286485	MBM286486	MBM286484	MBM286487	MBM286488	MBM286489
Species	M. melanotrichos	M. melanotrichos	M. macrospina	M. macrospina	M. macrospina	M. macrospina
Colony height (cm)	76	35	56	51	69	48
Basal stem width (mm)	2.7	1.5	1.0	2.5	3.0	2.5
Branching part height (cm)	9	8	–	12	11	7
Branching part width (cm)	18	18	6	26	20	14
Branch maximal length (cm)	10	12	4	16	13	12
Branches	2	2	22	14	7	6
Interbranch distance (mm)	–	–	9–25	6–13	13–18	5–18
Internode length (mm)	4–12	3–11	3–7	3–8	3–10	3–11
First internode length (mm)	13–24	12–18	3–8	5–8	6–8	6–11
Polyp height (mm)	1.0–2.5	1.0–4.0, most 2.0	1.0–2.5, most 1.0	average 1.0	1.0–1.5	1.0–1.5
Polyps in internode	1, rarely 2	1, rarely 2	1, rarely 2	1, rarely 2	1, rarely 2	1, rarely 2
Polyps in terminal branchlets	1–3	1–4	1–4	1–4	1–5	1–2
Inter-polyp distance (mm)	1–6	1–4	2–5	1–3	0–5	0–4
Sclerites measured in tentacles (μm)	129–433 × 17–55	125–467 × 21–125	96–450 × 10–85	44–542 × 6–117	120–492 × 12–98	115–460 × 14–78
Sclerites measured in body wall (μm)	172–571 × 14–93	128–429 × 25–125	96–450 × 10–85	44–542 × 6–117	137–473 × 17–93	57–417 × 11–66
Sclerites measured in coenenchyme (μm)	96–378 × 18–66	148–379 × 31–113	112–456 × 10–62	175–394 × 17–75	78–328 × 11–51	70–372 × 14–50
Figures	7, 8	9, 10	11, 12	13, 14	15, 16	17, 18