Antipathozoanthus Sinniger, Reimer, & Pawlowski, 2010

Swain, Timothy D. & Swain, Laura M., 2014, Molecular parataxonomy as taxon description: examples from recently named Zoanthidea (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) with revision based on serial histology of microanatomy, Zootaxa 3796 (1), pp. 81-107 : 88-89

Genus Antipathozoanthus Sinniger, Reimer, & Pawlowski, 2010

Type species. Antipathozoanthus macaronesicus (Ocaño & Brito, 2004) , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Colonial Parazoanthidae associated with Antipatharia and lacking scleroprotein skeleton. Known from subtropical and tropical regions at 10– 45 m. Azooxanthellate. Polyps pink to yellow and encrusted, expand 4–12 mm wide and 4–15 mm long (diagnosis of Sinniger et al. 2008). Capitular ridges 23–28. Marginal musculature endodermal, 352–585 Μm in length, composed of 30–63 attachment points. Encrustations of the column to the outer mesoglea; no mesogleal canals or encircling sinus (diagnosis expanded using data presented here and Swain 2010).

Remarks. The identity and attributes of A. macaronesicus have been confused due to an initial misidentification (Ocaño & Brito, 2004) of specimens of Savalia savaglia as an ecological variant of A. macaronesicus . Because of this error, nucleotide sequences derived from S. savaglia were labeled as Savalia macaronesica (Genbank AY995906 , AY995930 ) by Sinniger et al. (2005). Although the error in both publications was identified by Ocaña et al. (2007) and published correctly in Remier et al. (2007), Remier et al. (2008a), and Remier et al. (2008b), it was further propagated by Sinniger et al. (2008) with the introduction of new COI sequence (Genbank EF672657 ) from S. savaglia labeled Savalia aff. savaglia in supplemental information, S. macaronesica in Genbank, and unlabeled in the text. This error was compounded by Sinniger & Häussermann (2009) with the introduction of new ITS sequences (Genbank EU591546 , EU591547 ) from S. savaglia that are labeled Savalia aff. savaglia in the text and Savalia aff. macaronesica in Genbank. Swain (2010) further propagated this error by applying the original binomen Gerardia macaronesica to nucleotide sequences derived from S. savaglia but labeled S. macaronesica by Sinniger et al. (2005) and Sinniger et al. (2008). Sinniger et al. (2010) reassigned S. macaronesica to Antipathozoanthus as A. macaronesicus and reported that this species was distantly related to Savalia . This appears to be the first correct application of the species name macaronesica (= macaronesicus ) in a molecular phylogeny; previously, samples belonging to A. macaronesicus were labeled with various renditions of the collection locations Cape Verde and Principe. The accessions in Genbank (numbers cited above) remain mislabeled (last accessed March 14, 2014).

In addition to misidentifications leading to error propagation, authors disagree ( Sinniger et al. 2010) about the scleroprotein skeleton (character apparently unique to Savalia ) in Antipathozoanthus . It seems that it can be difficult to distinguish between the skeleton of the host Antipatharia and extensions of that skeleton constructed by the Zoanthidea . However, this skeleton appears to be ecologically important, as established Savalia populations increase biodiversity and the deposition of bioavailable substrates ( Cerrano et al. 2010). Careful phylogenetics and morphometrics may eventually unravel confusion over identity and skeleton construction, and assist in clarifying definitions for both genera; one possibility is that the cyclically transitional marginal musculature of C. tsukaharai is a character shared with others in its clade (sensu Swain 2010) and may serve to differentiate Corallizoanthus and Savalia from Antipathozoanthus . Another possibility is that associations between symbionts and hosts may differentiate Savalia and Antipathozoanthus (thought to be parasitic by Ocaña & Brito 2004 and Reimer & Fujii 2010 respectively) from Corallizoanthus (thought not to be parasitic by Reimer et al. 2008a); although controlled experiments similar to Swain (2012) are needed to clarify the outcome of these symbiotic relationships.