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 Eunicella filiformis Studer, 1878 Eunicea filiformis Studer, 1878: 138 (West Africa). Eunicella filiformis Studer, 1878a: 655 , pl. 4, figs. 23 a–c. Opinion: There is no evidence that this species occurs in the region. Justification: Literature analysis : This species was erected by Studer for material collected of the west coast of Africa and originally named Eunicea filiformis , but, shortly after, Studer (1878a) reassigned the species to Eunicella . The only Indian reference is in a presented by Kumar et al. (2017: PY-B) where the species is presented with the authorship as “Studer, 1879”, and “1879 Scirpearia filiformis Studer ” is cited as a synonym. But Studer did not publish in that year, and Scirpearia filiformis is a species erected by Toeplitz and is a synonym of Ellisella filiformis . Kumar et al. (2017: PY-B) cited Scirpearia filiformis in Thomas & George (1986: 111) and Mary & Lazarus (2004: 42) as being synonymous, but the sclerite drawings in those papers are very rudimentary and do not look like they are from an ellisellid and are certainly not from a Eunicella colony.