Sagartiogeton undatus (Müller, 1778)

Çinar, Melih Ertan, Yokeş, Mehmet Baki, Açik, Şermin & Bakir, Ahmet Kerem, 2014, Checklist of Cnidaria and Ctenophora from the coasts of Turkey, Turkish Journal of Zoology 38 (6), pp. 677-697 : 689-693

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.3906/zoo-1405-68

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03F1878D-FFAC-FC59-03A7-A1B1FD793E0D

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Sagartiogeton undatus (Müller, 1778)
status

 

Sagartiogeton undatus (Müller, 1778) View in CoL

( Figure 2G View Figure 2 )

Notes: Column up to 120 mm high and 20 mm in diameter, becoming very low in contraction. Oral disc wider than column, with an unusually wide mouth; tentacles up to 200, long. Column grey or buff, with regular vertical stripes of brown flecks of variable intensity; acontia not readily emitted ( Figure 2G View Figure 2 ). Disc and tentacles translucent grey or buff, with a pattern of dark markings and cream spots; often with irregular dark radial wedges; tentacles with 2 dark longitudinal stripes ( Manuel, 1988).

Distribution: Many specimens of this species were observed on rocky substrate at 25–35 m depths at station 1. It is an Atlanto-Mediterranean species ( Vafidis, 2010).

Pachycerianthus multiplicatus Carlgren, 1912

( Figure 2H View Figure 2 )

Notes: Marginal tentacles arranged in 4 pseudocycles, numbering almost 120; diameter of tentacles ca. 150 mm. Marginal tentacles pale yellowish to white at tips, banded with brown; labial tentacles pale yellowish ( Figure 2H View Figure 2 ). Tips of marginal tentacles slender, bending towards direction of prevailing current.

Distribution: This species was found only on sandy mud bottom (3 specimens) at 8 m depth at station 10 (Yumurtalık). It is known from the coasts of the United Kingdom and Scandinavia ( Manuel, 1988). This is the first time this species is being reported from the Mediterranean Sea. This species could have been introduced to the area (near the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan Oil Terminal) by ballast waters of ships.

Three anthozoan species were excluded from the list: 1) Phellia elongata (Delle Chiaje, 1825) was reported on alga Ellisolandia elongata (cited as Corallina mediterranea ) in İzmir Bay by Kocataş (1978), but this species was considered nomen dubium by van der Land and den Hartog (2001); 2) based on the specimens collected at 4 stations (depth range: 73–496 m) in the Sea of Marmara, Ostroumoff (1896) presented Palythoe conchilega as a new species together with a small note, but as the species was not adequately described or figured, it is considered here as nomen nudum; 3) Demir (1952) identified the species Gorgonia flabellum Linnaeus, 1758 (cited as Rhipidigorgia flabellum ) among the Sea of Marmara material deposited at the Fisheries Institution in İstanbul. It is in fact a western Atlantic (Antilles) species (Bayer, 1953) and its report from the Sea of Marmara is probably a misidentification since the species has no other records from the Turkish coasts or the whole Mediterranean Sea. Finally, 2 anthozoan species, namely Cerianthus lloydii and Diadumene cincta , are regarded as questionable as no morphologic/anatomic characters specific to these species were provided by Gökalp (2011).

The total number of Cnidaria and Ctenophora species along the coasts of Turkey was estimated to be 202 species, of which 195 species belonged to Cnidaria and 7 species to Ctenophora ( Figure 3 View Figure 3 ). The highest number of cnidarian species was determined in the Aegean Sea (121 species) and the Sea of Marmara (115 species), with the lowest (17 species) in the Black Sea. Unlike cnidarians, the highest number of ctenophore species (5 species) was encountered in the Black Sea, with the lowest (3 species) in the Levantine Sea.

Among the classes of Cnidaria and Ctenophora, Hydrozoa ranked first in terms of the number of species (106 species), followed by Anthozoa (75 species) and Scyphozoa (12 species) ( Figure 3 View Figure 3 ). Scyphozoa included 10 species in the Aegean Sea, 7 species in the Levantine Sea, and 2 species ( Aurelia aurita and Rhizostoma pulmo ) in the Black Sea. The Sea of Marmara possessed roughly half the number of hydrozoan species (57 species) and the majority of anthozoans (52 species) known to occur along the coasts of Turkey. This sea also contained 24 anthozoan species (e.g., Corynactis viridis , Sagartiogeton spp. , Dendrophyllia ramea , Desmophyllum dianthus , Parerythropodium bosphorense , Spinimuricea klavereni , and Paramuricea macrospina ) that have not been reported from any other seas surrounding Turkey. Only 1 Cubozoa ( Carybdea marsupialis ) and 1 Staurozoa ( Lucernariopsis campanulata ) species were reported along the coasts of Turkey ( Demir, 1952; Geldiay and Balık, 1977; Gönlügür Demirci, 2004). The number of ctenophore species varied between 3 (Levantine Sea) and 5 (Black Sea) in the region.

The numbers of cnidarian and ctenophore species along the coasts of Turkey are shown in Figure 4 View Figure 4 . The hot spot areas for the cnidarian species are the Prince Islands, İstanbul Straits, İzmir Bay, and Datça Peninsula ( Figure 4A View Figure 4 ). Only 9 grid squares (15 × 15 km) have more than 18 cnidarian species in the region. Cnidarians along the Black Sea coast of Turkey have been poorly studied to date, with the presence of 2 jellyfish ( Aurelia aurita and Rhizostoma pulmo ), 8 hydrozoan, and 6 anthozoan species, most of which were reported from the pre-Bosphorus area (i.e. Jakubova, 1948; Kiseleva, 1981). The diversity and population densities of ctenophores have been relatively well studied in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Every grid in these seas has at least one ctenophore species ( Figure 4B View Figure 4 ). The less studied regions in terms of the ctenophore diversity are the Aegean Sea and Levantine Sea, where the limited data regarding this group are only available from Fethiye Bay, İzmir Bay, and Gökçeada.

The numbers of hydrozoan species attained the highest levels (max. 32 species) in areas such as the Datça Peninsula, Prince Islands, and İstanbul Strait, where relatively strong scientific efforts have been made, particularly thanks to Marinopoulos (1979) and Ünsal (1981) ( Figure 5A View Figure 5 ). Only 3 grid squares in the Aegean Sea and 5 grid squares in the Sea of Marmara have more than 10 species. Only grid squares located near the Black Sea entrance of the İstanbul Strait possessed the hydrozoan species (totally 8 species) in the Black Sea, where almost 26 species are known ( Zaitsev and Mamaev, 1997). There are also some sporadic data on hydrozoan fauna along the Levantine coast of Turkey. The scyphozoan species were relatively well studied in İzmir Bay ( Ergen, 1967; Balık, 1972) and around Gökçeada ( Öztürk and Topaloğlu, 2011), where more than 4 species were reported ( Figure 5B View Figure 5 ). Aurelia aurita is a common species along the coast of the Black Sea ( Kideys and Romanova, 2001), Cotylorhiza tuberculata in Gökova Bay ( Gülşahin and Tarkan, 2011b), and Rhopilema nomadica in Mersin Bay and İskenderun Bay (Avşar, 1999). The highest number of anthozoan species (>12 species) was found around the Prince Islands and Kaş, where relatively intensive research has been performed ( Figure 5C View Figure 5 ). Some species seem to have a narrow geographic distribution (i.e. confined to a specific area). For instance, the alien invasive coral species Oculina patagonica was only encountered in Akkuyu (Çinar et al.,

ÇINAR et al. / Turk J Zool

2006a), Desmophyllum dianthus in deep water (Çınarcık Basin) of the Sea of Marmara ( Taviani et al., 2011) , and Parerythropodium bosphorense in the İstanbul Strait ( Tixier-Durivault, 1961). Data regarding the anthozoan fauna of the Black Sea of Turkey are only available from the pre-Bosphorus region and Sinop Peninsula.

Only 34 species were found in the pelagic domain and the remaining in benthic assemblages. The majority of the species (139) were encountered on hard substrata and 33 species were from soft substrata. Seven species occurred on both hard and soft substrata. A total of 155 species were reported from 0–50 m depths and only 5 species ( Alcyonium palmatum , Desmophyllum dianthus , Parantipathes larix , Cerianthus membranaceus , and Muggiaea kochii ) inhabited depths of about 200 m or downwards.

The alien Cnidaria and Ctenophora species inhabiting the coasts of Turkey were evaluated by Çinar et al. (2011), who listed 8 species (2 Hydrozoa, 3 Scyphozoa, 1 Anthozoa, and 2 Ctenophora species) in the region. The number of alien species (18) presented in this study is more than the double that. There are 3 reasons for this increase: 1) 5 alien hydrozoan ( Coryne eximia , Eudendrium merulum , Sertularia marginata , Clytia linearis , and Filellum serratum ) and 1 anthozoan ( Diadumene lineata ) species escaped the attention of Çinar et al. (2011); 2) 2 species ( Aequorea globosa and Diadumene cincta ) were recently identified in the area ( Gökalp, 2011; Turan et al., 2011); and, finally, 3) 2 species ( Sagartiogeton laceratus and Pachycerianthus multiplicatus ) are newly reported as components of the Turkish marine fauna in the present study. The xenodiversity (i.e. alien diversity) regarding the phylum Cnidaria is 16 species (8 hydrozoan, 3 scyphozoan, 5 anthozoan); for the phylum Ctenophora, it is 2 species. The majority of alien species should be considered as Lessepsian migrants. The presence of the cnidarian species Diadumene spp. , S. laceratus , P. multiplicatus , and Oculina patagonica and the ctenophores ( Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata ) along the Turkish coasts should probably be attributed to introduction by shipping. Finally, Cordylophora caspia has been considered as a cryptogenic species ( Zenetos et al., 2010). The distribution of the number of alien species along the coast of Turkey is shown in Figure 6 View Figure 6 . Two alien ctenophore species ( Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata ) are very common in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Five grid squares in the Sea of Marmara and 3 in the Levantine Sea (İskenderun Bay) have maximally 3 alien species, whereas only 2 grid squares have 2 alien species in the Aegean Sea. The alien jellyfish species ( Cassiopea andromeda , Phyllorhiza punctata , and Rhopilema nomadica ) occurred only along the Aegean and Levantine coasts of Turkey.

In the IUCN Red List, the gorgonian Eunicella verrucosa is classified as Vulnerable, Madracis pharensis as Least Concern, and Balanophyllia europaea and Cladocora caespitosa as Data Deficient (IUCN, 2014). Oculina patagonica , which is an invasive alien species in the Mediterranean Sea, might have been erroneously included in the list with wrong information (i.e. endemic species for the Mediterranean Sea). According to the Barcelona and Bern Conventions, Savalia savaglia is recognised as an endangered or threatened species. In the national legislation (Official Notice for Regulating Commercial Fisheries of Water Resources, No. 2012/65), fisheries of Corallium rubrum and Savalia savaglia are prohibited along the coasts of Turkey. Savalia savaglia is known to occur in the Sea of Marmara ( Öztürk and Bourguet, 1990) and the North Aegean Sea (present study), but no report has been made about the occurrence of C. rubrum along the Turkish coast. Therefore, the presence of this species in the list lacks scientific basis. However, the presence of this species in the Aegean Sea is known since the classical work of Forbes (1844), who reported it as “very numerous minute specimens occurring of Corallium rubrum , for instance, but none being met with of sufficient size as to render them of value in commerce”. This species was then encountered near Meis (Kastellorizon) Island at 128–274 m depth ( Zibrowius, 1979b) and in the North Aegean Sea ( Chintiroglou et al., 1989) including Midilli Island at 50– 91 m depths ( Vafidis et al., 1994).

The species reports of Cnidaria and Ctenophora sharply increased after the 1940s in all seas except for the Black Sea, where a relatively gradual increase was observed in the course of time ( Figure 7 View Figure 7 ). The authors that made the major contributions to the understanding of the cnidarian diversity in the region were Ostroumoff (1896) with 23 new records, Demir (1952) with 26 new records, Marinopoulos (1979) with 25 new records, and Ünsal (1981) with 13 new records. In the last 14 years, new species records have been given by different authors with almost equal contributions.

This paper compiled all existing species data regarding Cnidaria and Ctenophora along the coasts of Turkey and provides a database for future studies. The paper also indicates the urgent need of precise taxonomic studies to be focused on certain classes of these phyla (i.e. Anthozoa) that have not been adequately studied in the area yet. The lack of faunistic data in many marine areas of Turkey (including deep seas) and the requisite of expanding faunistic studies from some specific areas (e.g., İzmir Bay) where marine stations are located towards other unexplored areas of the Turkish coasts are also emphasised.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Cnidaria

Class

Anthozoa

Order

Actiniaria

Family

Sagartiidae

Genus

Sagartiogeton

Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF