Redescription of Acrophytum claviger (Coelenterata: Octocorallia)

Volume: 2Start Page: 105End Page: 11

New species of the Gorgonian genus Plumigorgia (Coelenterata: Octocorallia) with a review of the family Ifalukellidae

Volume: 3Start Page: 95End Page: 12

Taxonomic studies within the gorgonian family Isididae (Coelenterata: Octocorallia)

This thesis is a taxonomic treatment of a number of closely related groups of gorgonians within the family Isididae (Octocorallia: Coelenterata). The revisionary aspects of the study are centred around the genus Mopsea which is shown to be grossly paraphyletic. Heretofore including 17 nominal species, it is proposed that only the type species Mopsea encrinula is valid; a second, new species is added. Of the other recognised species, Mopsea dichotoma (Linne) is an unidentifiable melithaeid, and the remainder are divided amongst 1 existing and 7 new genera. These re-assignments are primarily on the basis of polyp structure, colonial branching pattern, and axial architecture, which are correlated with sclerite form and arrangement. Various states of these characters are used to define the relatedness of other genera. Taxonomic confusion is most likely to arise amongst both unbranched forms and branched forms which are predominantly planar, so the species of all known closely related genera with these morphologies are revised. The latter comprises the recognised and valid genera Acanthoisis, Peltastisis, Circinisis, Minuisis and the neglected Notisis. Although Minuisis has a generally bushy habitus, it is included because its growth form is modified to pinnate, planar branching by a commensal scale worm. It is shown that Primnoisis, Chathamisis, and Echinisis which have a bushy growth form can be distinguished as a group on this character, and individually using polyp structure, and these taxa are only considered at the generic level. Descriptions are extensively illustrated with scanning electron micrographs and all preparation techniques are detailed. The revision of known species is based on type material borrowed from numerous Australian and international institutions. As far as can be ascertained, virtually all of the specimens mentioned in the literature that were considered to be relative to the study have been examined, together with a large suites of additional and previously undescribed material. Numerous new taxa are proposed based on these specimens. In total, 23 established species are validated, 15 as new combinations, and 30 new species are proposed along with 16 new genera. These taxa are assigned to the subfamilies Mopseinae and Circinsidinae, while Peltastisidinae is considered to be untenable. Keys to the genera of the former 2 subfamilies are given. Lectotypes are designated for the following species Mopsea flabellum Thomson & Mackinnon, M. elegans Thomson & Mackinnon, and M. simplex Tixier-Durivault, and all 3 are assigned to new genera. A lectotype for Mopsea encrinula (Lamarck) was designated in an application made to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature during this study. The application requested the ICZN to use its plenary powers to designate Isis encrinula Lamarck as the type species of the genus Mopsea, and the Commission subsequently agreed to this proposal. Copies of the relevant publications are included in the appendices. The history of all the relevant taxa is given inclusive of all reassignments made in the taxonomic portion of the text. Some new terms are introduced in the section on taxonomic characters and terminology, which contains a particular point of focus on polyp structure. The misuse of the terms anthocodia and anthostele is discussed, and the neglected term anthopoma is reintroduced for the `opercular' region of the polyp. Each of the defined character states pertaining to polyp structure, axial architecture, and the pattern of ramification, are shown, with rare exceptions, to be consistent within the proposed generic groups. Distribution maps are given for all species, genera, and subfamilies. A preliminary model is proposed of the broad evolutionary history of the subfamilies in an attempt to explain the disparate distribution ranges of the bushy and non-bushy forms which may have had separate subsequent lineages from a common ancestor

Two new dimorphic genera and species of soft coral (Coelenterata: Octocorallia: Nidaliidae)

We describe two new dimorphic genera and species of Nidaliidae with some similarities to the genus Nidaliopsis Kükenthal, 1906. One was collected at Heard Island in the Southern Ocean and is unusual in that it has siphonozooids with calyces, and the other was collected off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia and is notable for the large sclerites in the armature of the autozooid polyps. Both taxa were collected at a depth close to 500 m

Chiropsella bart n. sp., a new box jellyfish (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Chirodropida) from the Northern Territory, Australia

A new species of multi-tentacled box jellyfish from eastern Arnhem Land along the Gulf of Carpentaria, renowned locally for occurring only in the so-called ‘safe season’ (i.e., the dry season), is described. Chiropsella bart n. sp., differs from other chiropsalmids in maturing at a much smaller size, in its mature tentacle number, in having coalesced gastric saccules in the form of a kidney-bean-shaped knob, and in having very long pedalia with the branches and tentacles clustered near the distal end

Pinnule-less polyps: a new genus and new species of Indo-Pacific Clavulariidae and validation of the soft coral genus Acrossota and the family Acrossotidae (Coelenterata: Octocorallia). Zootaxa 1400

Abstract Clavularia amboinensis Burchardt, a species described as possessing simple, pinnule-less tentacles (a fact refuted by later authors) is confirmed to be as described and is transferred as a new combination to Acrossota Bourne -a genus dismissed until now by a number of authors. The species is compared to recently collected material with live photographs. A second new genus and species, Knopia octocontacanalis, is also described. This taxon resembles Acrossota in general form, but has tentacles where the pinnules appear as though they are fused side to side along the tentacles' lateral margins. Preliminary phylogenetic analyses of two mitochondrial genes support placement of Knopia in Clavulariidae and retention of genus Acrossota in Bourne's unrecognised family Acrossotidae

New species of soft corals (Coelenterata:Octocorallia) from the Laccadive Archipelago

Volume: 8Start Page: 189End Page: 23

A New Genus and species of Box Jellyfish (Cubozoa: Carybdeidae) from Tropical Australian Waters

Volume: 21Start Page: 27End Page: 3

......continued on the next page in The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice

......continued on the next pagePublished as part of Ramvilas, Ghosh, Alderslade, Philip & Ranjeet, Kutty, 2023, The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice, pp. 1-124 in Zootaxa 5236 (1) on page 12, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5236.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/763932

Hard corals of the Darwin region, Northern Territory, Australia

A species list of hard corals recorded in subtidal and reef flat habitats of the Darwin region is presented. This is the first published list of the species of corals from the Darwin area, with a total of 125 scleractinian and non-scleractinian calcareous coral species belonging to 17 families and 47 genera, including one hydrozoan and one octocoral. The Faviidae is the family represented by the highest number of genera and species while relatively high numbers of species from the families Acroporidae and Poritidae are also present int he Darwin region. Similar numbers of species are recorded from the reef flat and the subtidal zone. Fewer species, but similar proportions of all major genera, are recorded from each family in Darwin compared with the east and west coasts of Australia