Collections from the mesophytic zone off Bermuda reveal three species of Kallymeniaceae (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) in genera with transoceanic distributions.

Abstract

A molecular survey of red algae collected by technical divers and submersibles from 90m in the mesophotic zone off the coast of Bermuda revealed three species assignable to the Kallymeniaceae. Two of the species are representative of recently described genera centered in the western Pacific in Australia and New Zealand, Austrokallymenia and Psaromenia and the third from the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic, Nothokallymenia. A phylogenetic analysis of concatenated mitochondrial (COI-5P) and chloroplast (rbcL) genes, as well as morphological characteristics, revealed that two are shown to be new species with distant closest relatives (N.erosa and Psaromenia septentrionalis), while the third represents a deep water western Atlantic species now moved to an Australasian genus (A.westii).