Biodiversity & Conservation

Slender sea pen - Virgularia mirabilis - General information

Virgularia mirabilis

Image Sue Scott - Sea pens, Virgularia mirabilis extending from muddy sediment. Image height ca 25 cm.
Image copyright information

  • #
  • #
  • #
Distribution map

Virgularia mirabilis recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Virgularia mirabilis?
If so please submit your record.

Virgularia mirabilis is not listed under any importance categories.

General information

Key Icon Researched by: Jacqueline Hill and Emily Wilson Text page icon Refereed by: This information is not refereed.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy

Phylum Cnidaria Sea anemones, corals, sea firs & jellyfish
Class Octocorallia
Map icon Recorded distribution in Britain and Ireland Found of all British and Irish coasts but less frequent in the south.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Virgularia mirabilis lives in fine sediments (muddy sand to soft mud). The species is found in sheltered inshore waters, or in deeper water offshore, from 12 - 400 m depth. The species is often very abundant in sea lochs or man-made harbours.
Text page icon Description A slender sea pen up to 60 cm long with a central stem only a few millimetres thick. Retractile tentacled polyps are fused into small 'leaves' which are arranged in two opposing lateral rows on the central stem. The colony varies in colour from white to creamy yellow in colour. May luminesce in darkness.

This review can be cited as follows:

Jacqueline Hill and Emily Wilson 2000. Virgularia mirabilis. Slender sea pen. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 18/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesfullreview.php?speciesID=4579>