Phenganax stokvisi, Lau, Yee Wah & Reimer, James D., 2019

Lau, Yee Wah & Reimer, James D., 2019, A first phylogenetic study on stoloniferous octocorals off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, with the description of two new genera and five new species, ZooKeys 872, pp. 127-158 : 127

Phenganax stokvisi sp. nov. Figure 3d

Material examined.

All specimens are from dive location Mid Reef, east of Manukan Island (05°58'35.8"N, 116°00'52.2"E) TARP, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia and collected by YW Lau. Holotype: NSMT-Co 1685, 5 m depth. Paratypes: IPMB-C 01.00015: 4 m depth. IPMB-C 01.00014 4 m depth.

Description.

The colony consists of ~100 polyps which are densely packed and are connected through flattened ribbon-like stolons with irregular width (~0.21-0.55 mm). The colony is fragmented into two pieces with the rock it was attached to. Expanded polyps are approximately 3.0 mm in diameter and have tentacles with pinnules arranged in pairs of ten on either side of the rachis. Polyps are clustered closely together (adjacent to one another) and partly spaced apart (~1.0 mm in between clustered polyps). Polyps retract into calyces (~1.0 mm width) that are barrel shaped. No sclerites were found. Polyps are whitish grey coloured in life (whitish yellow when preserved in ethanol). Zooxanthellate.

Distribution.

Manukan Island, TARP, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Remarks.

Phenganax stokvisi sp. nov. shows similarity to the densely packed P. parrini , polyps being in the same size range (2.5-3.0 mm width in P. parrini ), only showing difference in the number of pinnule pairs and colour of the polyps (possibly due to zooxanthellae).

Etymology.

Named after Frank Robert Stokvis, whose passion for octocoral research has never changed since his first study on this topic.

Figures

Figure 3. In situ photographs of clavulariids found in and around TARP, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. a Clavulariidae sp., specimen NSMT-Co 1686 b Phenganax marumi sp. nov., holotype (NSMT-Co 1683) c Phenganax subtilis sp. nov., holotype (NSMT-Co 1684) d Phenganax stokvisi sp. nov., holotype (NSMT-Co 1685).