Catalaphyllia jardinei ( Saville-Kent, 1893 )

Fujii, Takuma, Kitano, Yuko F & Tachikawa, Hiroyuki, 2020, New Distributional Records of Three Species of Euphylliidae (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Hexacorallia, Scleractinia) from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, Species Diversity 25, pp. 275-282 : 279-281

Catalaphyllia jardinei ( Saville-Kent, 1893) ( Figs 1E, F , 3 , 4 )

Pectinia jardinei Savill-Kent, 1893: 158 , pl. 4.

Catalaphyllia jardinei: Wells 1971: 368–370 ; Veron 2000: 82– 83; Nomura and Mezaki 2015: 35, pl. 2.

Euphyllia sabiuraensis Eguchi, 1973: 82–83 , pl. 1.

Cattalophyllia sabiuraensis: Eguchi and Miyawaki 1975: 54 , pl. 6; Kushimoto Marine Park Center 1977: 3, 48.

Catalaphyllia sabiuraensis: Shirai 1977: 584 .

Specimens examined. KAUM-CN-13, a fan-shaped corallum with a pointed base, corallum height of 126.4 mm, elongated calice of 209.3× 26.8 mm calicular diameter, calice bifurcated and trifurcated at each end, Tean , Oshima Strait , Setouchi , Amami-Oshima island , Kagoshima, Japan (28°9′38.98″N, 129°17′35.04″E), 32 m in depth, collected by Takuma Fujii on 20 December 2018; CMNH-ZG 09662 , a fan-shaped corallum with a pointed base; corallum height of 78.1 mm; elongated calice of 123.0× 34.2 mm calicular diameter, Tean, Oshima Strait, Setouchi, Amami-Oshima island, Kagoshima, Japan (28°9′38.98″N, 129°17′35.04″E), 32 m in depth, collected by Takuma Fujii on 21 December 2017; and KAUM-CN-14, a fan-shaped corallum with a pointed base, 96.8 mm in height, elongated calice of 177.9× 33.6 mm calicular diameter, Nishikomi, Oshima Strait, Setouchi, Amami-Oshima island, Kagoshima, Japan (28°14′28.86″N 129°10′6.33″E), 31 m in depth, collected by Takuma Fujii on 03 May 2019 .

Comparative specimens examined. Photographs of the previously collected specimens are shown in Fig. 4 . USNM 1259568 , Horseshoe Cliffs , Onna, Okinawajima island, Okinawa, Japan, depth range 52–55 m, collected by Robert F Bolland on 21 December 1988 . USNM 94409 , off Nago City , Nago, Okinawajima island, Okinawa, Japan, 27 m in depth, collected by Robert F . Bolland on 21 February 1992 .

Morphology. The specimens collected at Amami-Oshima island show typical features of the current monotypic genus Catalaphyllia Wells, 1971 , solid flabello-meandroid corallum with wide V-shaped valley moderately and linearly became hollow into the center, septa with a few teeth developed only in the inner margin ( Fig. 3 ). The living polyp also shows the unique feature of the genus in thick fleshy oral disc which is expanded during the day and tubular to small bubble-shaped tentacles with a spherical tip at the edge ( Fig. 1E, F ).

Habitat and distribution. Specimens collected in the current study were from hilly, muddy, and rubbly seafloor areas at a depth greater than 30 m inside two different bays in the Oshima Strait (Tean and Nishikomi). Catalaphyllia jardinei was originally described from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia ( Saville-Kent 1893), and is also known from the northern Great Barrier Reef ( Veron and Pichon 1980), New Caledonia ( Wells 1971), Malaysia ( Waheed and Hoeksema 2014) and Indonesia ( Best et al. 1989). In Japan, this species has been reported only in temperate (northern) localities such as Miyazaki (Fukami pers. comm.; Ministry of Environment, Japan 2017), Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Nagasaki ( Ministry of Environment, Japan 2017), Kochi ( Nomura and Mezaki 2015), and Wakayama (e.g., Eguchi 1973; Nomura and Hirabayashi 2018). Although the Ryukyu Islands have been considered as a distributional gap in the species (e.g., Nishihira and Veron 1995; Veron 2000), two specimens from the east shore of Okinawajima island, in the middle of the Ryukyu Islands, have been kept at USNM without publication (USNM 94409 and USNM 1259568; Fig. 4 ). Both specimens from Amami-Oshima island in the current study and the USNM specimens from Okinawajima island fill the distributional gaps of C. jardinei between the tropical Western Pacific region and temperate Japan. Sinniger et al. (2019) observed C. jardinei at mesophotic region of Sesokojima island, Okinawa.

Remarks. Two nominal species of Catalaphyllia , C. sabiuraensis Eguchi, 1973 , and C. okinawaensis Eguchi and Shirai, 1977 , have been described from Japan. At present, these two species are considered to be junior synonyms of C. jardinei and E. glabrescens , respectively ( Veron 1992). Currently, the genus Catalaphyllia is considered to be monospecific, with its sole member being C. jardinei . Because of its rarity, not much information about the genus has been reported in Japan, and a taxonomical reexamination including its phylogenetic position is necessary.

Figures

Fig. 1. Underwater appearance of living corals. A, in situ photograph of the colonies of Fimbriaphyllia paraancora (KAUM-CN-10) on the left and F.paradivisa (KAUM-CN-11) at Tean, Amami-Oshima island, Kagoshima, Japan, on 21 December 2017; B, an aggregation of F.paradivisa approximately 3–5m in diameters on the muddy bottom in the usually turbid inner bay at a depth 28m, Henoko, Okinawajima island, Okinawa, Japan, on 25 November 2010; C, extended polyps of F. paradivisa showing branching tentacles with spherical ends; D, extended polyps of F. paraancora showing tentacles with anchor-shaped tips; E, in situ photograph of Catalaphyllia jardinei (KAUM-CN-14) at Tean, Amami-Oshima island, Kagoshima, Japan, on 21 December 2017; F, polyps of C. jardinei showing small bubble-shaped tentacles at the edge of the oral disc.

Fig. 3. Corallum of Catalaphyllia jardinei currently reported from Amami-Oshima island, Japan. A, side view of the corallite of KAUM- CN-14; B, view from the top side of the corallite and the calice of KAUM-CN-14; C, side view of the corallite of CMNH-ZG 09662; D, view from the top side of the corallite and the calice of CMNH-ZG 0966 showing three-forked branching of the calice.

Fig. 4. Specimens of Catalaphyllia jardinei preserved in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Photographs taken by Allison Becker) (USNM). A–B, corallite of USNM 1259568, collected at 52–55m deep off Manza Horshoe Cliffs, Onna, Okinawajima island, Okinawa, Japan, on 21 December 1988, by Robert F. Bolland; C–D, corallite of USNM 94409, collected at 27m deep off Nago City, Nago, Okinawajima island, Okinawa, Japan, on 21 February 1992, by R. F. Bolland.