Sinularia eilatensis, Ofwegen, Leen P. van, Benayahu, Yehuda & McFadden, Catherine S., 2013

Ofwegen, Leen P. van, Benayahu, Yehuda & McFadden, Catherine S., 2013, Sinularia leptoclados (Ehrenberg, 1834) (Cnidaria, Octocorallia) re-examined, ZooKeys 272, pp. 29-59 : 34-35

Sinularia eilatensis sp. n. Figs 5 A–E6– 9

Type material examined.

holotype ZMTAU Co 35260, Israel, Red Sea, northern Gulf of Aqaba, Eilat, IUI (the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat) reef, depth 6 m, coll. Y. Benayahu, 10 January 2011; paratypes: ZMTAU Co 35261, same data as holotype; ZMTAU Co 35305, same data as holotype, 30 May 2011.

Other material examined: ZMTAU Co 35303-04, Israel, Red Sea, northern Gulf of Aqaba, Eilat, IUI reef, depth 5 m, coll. Y. Benayahu, 30 May 2011.

Description.

The holotype is 3.4 cm high and wide (Fig. 5A). The primary lobes branch off once or twice, lobules finger-shaped, up to 2 mm wide and 1 cm long.

The polyps have a collaret and eight points. Points with poorly developed clubs, up to 0.25 mm long (Fig. 6A), collaret with bent spindles, up to 0.25 mm long (Fig. 6B) Tentacles with rods, about 0.05 mm long (Fig. 6C).

The surface layer of the lobules has leptoclados-type clubs, the smallest are 0.07 mm long, most are around 0.10 mm, but some reach a length of 0.15 mm (Fig. 6D); in addition longer wart clubs are present, up to 0.25 mm long (Fig. 6E). Furthermore, the surface layer of the lobules has spindles, up to 0.35 mm long, with simple tubercles (Fig. 6F).

The sclerites of the surface layer of the base of the colony resemble those of the surface layer of the lobules but they are wider (Fig. 7).

The interior of the colony has mostly unbranched spindles, a few have one or two side branches. In the lobules they are up to 2.5 mm long (Fig. 8A), with simple or complex tubercles (Fig. 8B). In the base of the colony the spindles are up to 2 mm long (Fig. 8 C–D), with more complex tubercles (Fig. 8E).

Colour.

The preserved holotype is dark brown.

Etymology.

Named after Eilat, the type locality.

Intraspecific variation.

ZMTAU Co 35305 (Fig. 5C) has distinctly longer lobules, up to 2 cm long.

Remarks.

The speciesis unique among Sinularia species with leptoclados-type clubs by its very long point and collaret sclerites.

We excluded ZMTAU Co 35303-04 (Fig. 5 D–E) from the type series. Morphologically we could not find a difference between these two specimens and the types, but their mitochondrial gene haplotypes differ by 0.5%. For comparison, we also present sclerites of ZMTAU Co 35304 (Fig. 9).