Metallogorgia tenuis Pasternak, 1981
"Their length exceeds the length of their spicules by a small amount in the base of their polyps, but their width remains in the same order. Directly under the tentacles, the armor of the lengthwise positioned sclerites breaks up into 8 distinct spindles, made up of the conserved lengthwise distributed spicules. In this section of autozoids , the sclerites take on a somewhat applanate (horizontally flattened) form. In each of these "strands/cords", these spicules lie in 5-6 rows in the proximal part and in 3-4 rows in the distal part. The farther spindles cross onto the dorsal side of the tentacles. But here remains only two rows of sclerites. The last ones become even more horizontally flattened, but their "skin/surface" is more granular and with more clearly expressed "conical/tapered" papillae. The length of these spicules practically does not change in comparison to the spicules of the previous section, but their width is somewhat greater and reaches 0.035-0.04 mm." Pasternak 1981, translated from Russian by Boris Shoshitaishvili (Brown University).