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
Author
Lau, Yee Wah
Author
Reimer, James D.
text
ZooKeys
2019
872
127
158
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.872.36288
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.872.36288
1313-2970-872-127
BDF92DBF34CE4600939D2573C7D4F0B4
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.