Abstract
Globally, South Africa ranks in the top five countries regarding marine species richness per unit area. Given the high diversity, it is not surprising that many invertebrate taxa in the region are poorly characterised. The South African azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Anthozoa) is one such taxonomic group, and was last reviewed by Boshoff in 1980. Although more recent regional publications have reported on some species, there has not been a faunistic review that accounts for the country's species diversity since then. Moreover, numerous unidentified specimens representing more than three decades of sampling effort have accumulated. In this study the authors update the state of knowledge of South African azooxanthellate coral species. Specimens, particularly those within the extensive collections of the Iziko South African and Smithsonian museums, were morphologically examined and identified. Other data considered included historic data represented as imagery data, associated species data from recent research surveys, and the scientific literature. To date, the study has increased the total number of known species from 77 to 108 across eleven families, 28 new South African records, and three are new species with one new genus.
Highlights
IntroductionThe importance of regional guides has been emphasised by Costello et al (2010), who demonstrated how published monographs and guides within a region correlate with the state of knowledge of known taxa
This study is primarily based on the azooxanthellate Scleractinia deposited at the Iziko South African Museum (Cape Town) and at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian, Washington DC), comprising more than 600 samples collected through six historical expeditions (RV ‘Anton Bruun’, Benguela IV, RV ‘Meiring Naude’, RV ‘Pieter Faure’, ‘Sardinops’, and University of Cape Town Ecological Surveys)
The present study has added to the knowledge base of the azooxanthellate coral fauna by updating 31 incorrectly identified Boshoff (1981) specimens, addressing a research priority identified more than 30 years ago (Zibrowius and Gili 1990)
Summary
The importance of regional guides has been emphasised by Costello et al (2010), who demonstrated how published monographs and guides within a region correlate with the state of knowledge of known taxa These findings are in keeping with the observations of Gibbons et al (1999) and Griffiths et al (2010) that South Africa has low taxonomic efforts despite its high biodiversity. van der Horst (1927, 1933, 1938) documented ten dendrophylliid species Both the Gardiner and van der Horst accounts are mainly based on specimens collected through the University of Cape Town Ecological Surveys (UCTES) and remain the foundation of azooxanthellate coral research in South Africa.
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