Search for: All records

Routine DNA barcoding with the chloroplast gene tufA identified novel records of an unknown and denuded (i.e. lacking branchlets) Caulerpa species previously reported from the Florida Middle Grounds. tufA barcoding not only confirmed the matching molecular identity of this taxon with several newly collected denuded specimens from shallow habitats of the Yucatán shelf, but also with a set of plumose specimens previously collected from mesophotic depths of the West Florida shelf and recorded as Caulerpa sertularioides. Sequencing of two additional, faster-evolving DNA markers, i.e. nuclear ITS and the newly tested chloroplast-encoded rpoA, each confirmed conspecificity of the above morphotypes and the molecular separation of the new taxon from C. sertularioides and filiform species found in the region, namely C. cupressoides f. denudata and C. fastigiata. In light of our sequencing results and review of the early taxonomic history of filiform Caulerpa, we propose the description of Caulerpa wysorii sp. nov. for this new species that exhibits two distinct morphotypes in currently available collections, i.e. filiform or plumose assimilators. We also subsume C. tongaensis within the broadly distributed C. fastigiata, whose lectotype is also designated herein. In addition to Caulerpa wysorii sp. nov., we discovered yet another unknown denuded species from the Campeche Banks represented by a single specimen thus far. 

Nongeniculate coralline algae are difficult to identify based solely on morpho‐anatomy. To address the systematics of several taxonomically challenging taxa, we analyzed DNA sequences of a short portion (118–296 base pairs) of the 3′ end of therbcL gene from three type specimens. The analyses revealed thatHarveylithon munitum(basionym:Lithophyllum munitum), described in 1906 from Cave Cays, Exuma Chain, Bahamas, is conspecific with bothGoniolithon accretumandGoniolithon affine, described in 1906 from Sand Key, Florida and in 1907 from Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, respectively.Lithophyllum munitumandG. accretumwere described in the same 1906 publication and have equal priority. We have selected the currently accepted and most commonly used nameH. munitumto apply to this entity. Comparative analyses ofrbcL,psbA, UPA, COI, and LSU sequences from contemporary field‐collected specimens revealed thatH. munitumcurrently inhabits mesophotic rhodolith beds in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the intertidal zone in the Florida Keys, Honduras, Atlantic Mexico, Caribbean Panama, and Guadeloupe, French West Indies. Species delimitation analyses reveal that the Western Atlantic and AustralianH. munitumpopulations may be separate species. Two new species ofHarveylithonfrom the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and one new species from the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Red Sea were also identified in the analyses and are described.