The occurrence of Cavernularia pusilla is reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara, extending the range of the species in the eastern Mediterranean and providing the first report of the species from Turkish waters.

Delicate shallow-water sea pens were collected from Mangamaripeta fish landing centre of Visakhapatnam, India where they were brought in along with the fish catch. The sea pens were preserved and identified as Cavernularia obesa Valenciennes in Milne Edward & Haime, 1850. The species is being recorded for the first time from these waters.

The majority of biochemical studies in corals has been focused on the lipidic composition and little attention has been given to the amino acid profile of these invertebrates. The objectives of this work were to investigate, for the first time, the temporal variations in the total amino acid (AA) composition of an octocoral, namely the sea pen Veretillum cynomorium, and to evaluate possible interspecific differences in AA profile between this octocoral and hexacorals. The quantitatively most important AAs in V. cynomorium colonies were: glutamic acid, varying from 3.92 to 5.94% dry weight (dw) and representing around 14–15% of total AA content; aspartic acid (3.34–4.99% dw; 11–12%); and glycine (2.87–4.57% dw; 9–12%). On the other hand, the minor AAs were methionine (0.41–0.73% dw; 1–2%) and histidine (0.54–0.76% dw; 2%). Almost all AAs showed the same significant seasonal variations, with the highest values in February, second highest in October and the lowest in June. Some AAs, namely lysine, phenylalanine and methionine did not follow this trend and showed the major peak in October. Most of the AA variations seemed to be linked to changes in food availability and/or gametogenesis. Principal component analysis clearly separated the octocoral from the group of hexacorals, mainly due to the higher percentages of arginine, tyrosine and glycine in V. cynomorium, and valine, serine, histidine, isoleucine and alanine in hexacorallia species. We speculate that this differentiation possibly derived from physiological differences related to phylogeny, and was not affected by reproductive or environmental seasonality.

An abundant population of the sea pen Cavernularia pusilla (Anthozoa: Pennatulacea), with up to 70 colonies m−2, has been found on soft bottoms off the Basque coast (south-east Bay of Biscay, north-east Atlantic). This species spreads in an area of several kilometres length, and its bathymetric distribution ranges between 35 and 85 m depth, reaching its highest densities at 45–55 m. Such a population is remarkable, considering the scarce available records of this species and its southern affinities. The geographic and bathymetric distributions of the species are revised and discussed.

Examination of recent pennatulacean material collected during several cruises off the Atlantic coast of Africa has allowed the taxonomic reassessment of several taxa of veretillid sea pens that were previously poorly known. The holotype of Cavernularia elegans (Herklots, 1858) is redescribed with the result that all previous records of the species from western Africa should be considered incorrect, as the taxon is here considered to be limited in distribution to Japan. A new species of the genus Cavernularia is described and compared with its congeners and a new veretillid genus and species are described. New taxa are based on specimens from western Africa.