Blastotrochus Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848

Cairns, Stephen D., 2016, A key to the genera and species of the transversely-dividing Flabellidae (Anthozoa, Scleractinia, Flabellidae), with a guide to the literature, and the description of two new species, ZooKeys 562, pp. 1-48 : 22

Taxon classification Animalia Scleractinia Flabellidae

Genus Blastotrochus Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848

Blastotrochus Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848: 284-285.- Cairns 1989a: 645; 1989b: 74 (synonymy, discussion).- Cairns and Kitahara 2012: 14 (key to genus).

Flabellum (Blastotrochus) : Duncan 1884: 14.

Flabellum : Vaughan and Wells 1943: 226 (in part).- Wells 1956: F432 (in part).- Zibrowius 1974: 19-20 (in part: part of group 2).

Diagnosis.

Like Truncatoflabellum , but also producing asexual buds (anthoblasts) from thecal edges of anthocyathus. Thecal edges rounded, have a low edge angle, and bear one pair of basal edge spines.

Discussion.

The mode of asexual reproduction employed by Blastotrochus , described and illustrated by Cairns (1989a) as the anthoblast mode (also called bud shedding), differs slightly from transverse division of Truncatoflabellum by its potential to produce many more simultaneous clonemates from its thecal edges (instead of one at a time as with Truncatoflabellum ), leading to a potentially exponential increase in clonemates instead of a gradual one. This was considered as a key innovation by Cairns (1989a), worthy of generic distinction from Truncatoflabellum . A second species was described in this genus, Blastotrochus proliferus d’Archiardi, 1866 (Miocene, Italy), but was reassigned to Cladocora (see Pfister 1980). Blastotrochus thus remains a monophyletic genus and has rarely been collected.

Distribution.

Philippines, Indonesia, 11-62 m.

Type species.

Blastotrochus nutrix Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848, by monotypy.