A new species of the sun coral genus Tubastraea (Scleractinia: Dendrophylliidae) from Hong Kong

Sam King Fung Yiu; Sheena Suet Wah Chung; Jianwen Qiu

doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5047.1.1

A new species of the sun coral genus Tubastraea (Scleractinia: Dendrophylliidae) from Hong Kong

Sam King Fung Yiu, Sheena Suet Wah Chung, Jianwen Qiu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Biology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Tubastraea, commonly known as sun coral, is a genus of brightly coloured azooxanthellate corals in the family Dendrophylliidae. The diversity of this genus is low, with only seven recognized species. Herein, we describe Tubastraea megacorallita sp. nov. from Hong Kong based on morphological and molecular analyses. This new species exhibits several characteristics of the genus including being colonial, having a rough texture of corallum and no epitheca. It can be distinguished from its congenerics by bigger corallites, and the Pourtalès plan arrangement of its septa. The rDNA gene sequences (consisting of ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2, 18S and 28S) showed 2.45–5.18% divergence from those of its closest relatives, T. coccinea and T. micranthus.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-16
Number of pages	16
Journal	Zootaxa
Volume	5047
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5047.1.1
Publication status	Published - 28 Sep 2021

Scopus Subject Areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Animal Science and Zoology

User-Defined Keywords

Ahermatypic coral
Azooxanthellate
Dendrophylliid
Scleractinian coral
South China Sea
Coelenterata

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10.11646/zootaxa.5047.1.1

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title = "A new species of the sun coral genus Tubastraea (Scleractinia: Dendrophylliidae) from Hong Kong",

abstract = "Tubastraea, commonly known as sun coral, is a genus of brightly coloured azooxanthellate corals in the family Dendrophylliidae. The diversity of this genus is low, with only seven recognized species. Herein, we describe Tubastraea megacorallita sp. nov. from Hong Kong based on morphological and molecular analyses. This new species exhibits several characteristics of the genus including being colonial, having a rough texture of corallum and no epitheca. It can be distinguished from its congenerics by bigger corallites, and the Pourtal{\`e}s plan arrangement of its septa. The rDNA gene sequences (consisting of ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2, 18S and 28S) showed 2.45–5.18% divergence from those of its closest relatives, T. coccinea and T. micranthus.",

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author = "Yiu, {Sam King Fung} and Chung, {Sheena Suet Wah} and Jianwen Qiu",

note = "Funding Information: This study was supported by the Environmental and Conservation Fund (34/2019), Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (GML2019ZD0404), Hong Kong Branch of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (SMSEGL20SC02), and General Research Fund (HKBU 12102018). We thank Yu Sheung Law, Jack Chi Ho Ip, Caron Ka Lok Wong and Max Hin Leung for technical support, and James Y. Xie for helpful discussion on the distribution of sun coral. We thank Dr. Bert W. Hoeksema and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Magnolia Press.",

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N2 - Tubastraea, commonly known as sun coral, is a genus of brightly coloured azooxanthellate corals in the family Dendrophylliidae. The diversity of this genus is low, with only seven recognized species. Herein, we describe Tubastraea megacorallita sp. nov. from Hong Kong based on morphological and molecular analyses. This new species exhibits several characteristics of the genus including being colonial, having a rough texture of corallum and no epitheca. It can be distinguished from its congenerics by bigger corallites, and the Pourtalès plan arrangement of its septa. The rDNA gene sequences (consisting of ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2, 18S and 28S) showed 2.45–5.18% divergence from those of its closest relatives, T. coccinea and T. micranthus.

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A new species of the sun coral genus Tubastraea (Scleractinia: Dendrophylliidae) from Hong Kong

Abstract

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