Abstract
Sabah, Malaysia, is well known for its extensive and diverse coral reefs. It is located on the northwestern edge of the Coral Triangle, the region with the highest marine biodiversity. Much of the marine fauna here is still unknown, especially inconspicuous animals, such as small stoloniferous octocorals, which are common on coral reefs. Here, we describe two new monospecific genera of the family Arulidae found off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, East Malaysia; Bunga payunggen. nov. et sp. nov. and Laeta waheedaegen. nov. et sp. nov. As well, the stoloniferan genus Phenganax Alderslade & McFadden, 2011 belonging to the family Clavulariidae is expanded with three new species, P. marumisp. nov., P. subtilissp. nov., and P. stokvisisp. nov., which are all sclerite-free. Additionally, we report a possibly undescribed species, closely related to the clavulariid genera Azoriella Lopez-Gonzalez & Gili, 2001 and Cervera Lopez-Gonzalez et al., 1995. As this and other recent studies have shown, discoveries of small stoloniferous octocorals are helping to fill gaps in our knowledge of the overall systematics of Octocorallia.
Highlights
Coral reefs fringe one-sixth of the world’s coastlines and constitute the most biologically diverse shallow-water marine ecosystems, supporting thousands of species (Birkeland 1997; Reaka-Kudla 1997; Roberts et al 2002)
Despite Sabah’s location within the area that makes up the outer western edge of the Coral Triangle (Hoeksema 2007; Waheed and Hoeksema 2014; Waheed et al 2015a), and the fact that octocorals are an abundant and species-rich group on Indo-Pacific coral reefs, relatively little research has been done on octocorals in Sabah (Kassem et al 2012)
From surveys at only eight different dive locations, approximately 13 hours of field work, all within approximately 60 km2 (TARP + area around Udar and Sepangar Islands), five species and two stoloniferan genera new to science were discovered. These results are not completely unexpected, as Tunku Abdul Rahman Park (TARP) is located on the outer edge of the Coral Triangle, where studies on stoloniferous octocorals are in their infancy
Summary
Coral reefs fringe one-sixth of the world’s coastlines and constitute the most biologically diverse shallow-water marine ecosystems, supporting thousands of species (Birkeland 1997; Reaka-Kudla 1997; Roberts et al 2002). Despite Sabah’s location within the area that makes up the outer western edge of the Coral Triangle (Hoeksema 2007; Waheed and Hoeksema 2014; Waheed et al 2015a), and the fact that octocorals are an abundant and species-rich group on Indo-Pacific coral reefs, relatively little research has been done on octocorals in Sabah (Kassem et al 2012). Octocorals are one of the most widely distributed and common benthic groups, occurring from shallow tropics to the Antarctic deep sea, and are important members of the benthic community, providing refuge and habitat for numerous organisms (Sánchez et al 2003; Sánchez 2016) Due to their abundance, diverse structural complexity, and symbiotic relationships, octocorals play an important role in the energy transfer between plankton and other benthos (Van de Water et al 2018) and should receive more research attention. We formally describe two new monotypic genera within Arulidae and three new species within the genus Phenganax Alderslade & McFadden, 2011 within Clavulariidae
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