Pinnatiphycus menouana gen. et sp. nov. (Rhodophyta: Dicranemataceae) from New Caledonia and Fiji (South Pacific): vegetative and reproductive morphology and molecular phylogeny

A new tropical genus and species belonging to the family Dicranemataceae, Pinnatiphycus menouana, is described from lagoon and outer reef-slope habitats in New Caledonia and Fiji. The new genus differs from other members of the family by the unique combination of the following characters: (1) tetrasporangia borne in terminal nemathecia on lateral cylindrical branchlets; and (2) the disposition of cystocarps along lateral branchlets rather than on the main axis itself. The new species differs from Peltasta australis J. Agardh by the presence of cylindrical lateral branchlets along the flattened main axes and the occurrence of reproductive structures in terminal, subterminal or basal positions on the lateral branchlets. It differs from subtropical Reptataxis rhizophora (Lucas) Kraft from Lord Howe Island by the presence of both yellowish refractive medullary cell clusters and cylindrical lateral branches bearing subapical tetrasporangial sori and cystocarps, as well as a central fusion cell and the production of carposporangia in chains of two to three rather than four to six. rbcL molecular analysis of Fijian samples unequivocally places the genus in the family Dicranemataceae with 100% bootstrap support, strongly relating it to two species of Tylotus. The family itself, however, received only weak bootstrap support (66%) for distinguishing it from the clade containing the virtually Australian-endemic families Mychodeaceae and Acrotylaceae. Pinnatiphycus favors deepwater habitats (65–70 m) with low light intensities or shallower (, 30 m) but turbid high-current areas, which may have contributed to it being overlooked in the past

DNA sequencing reveals three new species of Chamberlainium (Corallinales, Rhodophyta) from South Africa, all formerly passing under Spongites yendoi

Three new non-geniculate coralline algal species from South Africa are described that were passing under the misapplied name, Spongites yendoi. Based on plastid encoded DNA sequences from psbA and rbcL markers, these species belong in the subfamily Chamberlainoideae. The DNA sequences, supported by the morpho-anatomical character of tetrasporangial conceptacle roof development, placed all three species in the genus Chamberlainium and not Pneophyllum, the only other genus in Chamberlainoideae. In addition to the diagnostic DNA sequences, Chamberlainium capense sp. nov., C. glebosum sp. nov. and Chamberlainium occidentale sp. nov. may be distinguished by a combination of habit, habitat, geographic distribution, and several morpho-anatomical features. Biogeographically all three species are found in the Benguela Marine Province of South Africa, with C. occidentale being the most widespread. Chamberlainium glebosum also has a wide, but disjunct distribution and C

Lithophyllum longense (Corallinales, Rhodophyta): a species with a widespread Indian Ocean distribution

Lithophyllum longense is characterized from Long Reef, Western Australia, Australia and from Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar Island, Tanzania. Both plastid markers psbA and rbcL confirm that L. longense is a distinct species despite its being morpho-anatomically nearly indistinguishable from several other fruticose Lithophyllum species, differing in only one (from L. atlanticum, L. platyphyllum, L. sublicatum, L. yemenense) or two (from L. affine, L. incrustans, L. kotschyanum, L. neocongestum, L. kaiseri, L. pseudoplatyphyllum, L. subreduncum) character states. This is only the second tropical Lithophyllum species and the fourth tropical species confirmed by DNA sequencing to be widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific

Sequencing type material resolves the identity and distribution of the generitype Lithophyllum incrustans, and related European species L. hibernicum and L. bathyporum (Corallinales, Rhodophyta)

DNA sequences from type material in the nongeniculate coralline genus Lithophyllum were used to unambiguously link some European species names to field-collected specimens, thus providing a great advance over morpho-anatomical identification. In particular, sequence comparisons of rbcL, COI and psbA genes from field-collected specimens allowed the following conclusion: the generitype species, L. incrustans, occurs mostly as subtidal rhodoliths and crusts on both Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, and not as the common, NE Atlantic, epilithic, intertidal crust reported in the literature. The heterotypic type material of L. hibernicum was narrowed to one rhodolith belonging in Lithophyllum. As well as occurring as a subtidal rhodolith, L. hibernicum is a common, epilithic and epizoic crust in the intertidal zone from Ireland south to Mediterranean France. A set of four features distinguished L. incrustans from L. hibernicum, including epithallial cell diameter, pore canal shape of sporangial conceptacles and sporangium height and diameter. An rbcL sequence of the lectotype of Lithophyllum bathyporum, which was recently proposed to accommodate Atlantic intertidal collections of L. incrustans, corresponded to a distinct taxon hitherto known only from Brittany as the subtidal, bisporangial, lectotype, but also occurs intertidally in Atlantic Spain. Specimens from Ireland and France morpho-anatomically identified as L. fasciculatum and a specimen from Cornwall likewise identified as L. duckerae were resolved as L. incrustans and L. hibernicum, respectively