The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice Author Ramvilas, Ghosh 0000-0001-5028-9058 ramvilas@kufos.ac.in Author Alderslade, Philip 0000-0001-5801-4681 phil.alderslade@csiro.au Author Ranjeet, Kutty 0000-0001-5028-9058 ramvilas@kufos.ac.in text Zootaxa 2023 2023-02-07 5236 1 1 124 journal article 54753 10.11646/zootaxa.5236.1.1 64c50077-1b03-44c5-9af9-0dac9180d62d 1175-5326 7639327 796FF9F5-E71F-4C69-92CC-CF4D6752BD77 Heliania racemosa ( Wright & Studer, 1889 ) Juncella racemosa Wright & Studer, 1889: 159–160 , pl. 34, fig. 11 ( Hyalonema ground, Japan ); Thomson & Simpson 1909: 268–269 (Andamans); Simpson, 1910: 54–56 , figs. 20–23 (Andmans). Junceella miniacea Thomson & Henderson, 1906: 81–82 , pl. 5, figs. 7, 12. ? Heliania spinescens Gray, 1859: 481 . Opinion: There is evidence this species occurs in the region. Justification: Literature analysis : This species was collected from deep water off Japan and originally described by Wright and Studer as Juncella racemosa . In their1906 monograph, Thomson & Henderson described a new species from the Andamans, Junceella miniacea , failing to see that it was very similar to Juncella racemosa because of the very stylised sclerite images presented by Wright and Studer. Later, Thomson & Simpson (1909) claimed Junceella miniacea was the same as Juncella racemosa after having examined Wright & Studer’s type specimen of the latter, and synonymised the two. Simpson (1910) assigned a specimen from the Andamans to this species and Nutting (1910d: 21) recorded the species from Indonesia but gave no confirming illustrations. The only reasonable sclerite figures for the species are those of Simpson (1910 : fig. 23), which show small differences from the sclerites figured by Bayer & Grasshoff (1994 : fig. 2) for Heliania spinescens , which may be a senior synonym of Heliani racemosa . Rao & Devi (2003) listed the species under the original name but erroneously cited the author as Valenciennes, and Venkataraman et al . (2004) listed Junceella miniacea .