Paragoniastrea variabilis Kishi, Nomura & Fukami, sp. nov. (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Scleractinia), a new coral species previously considered as a variant of Paragoniastrea deformis, from Japan and northern Taiwan

By

Kishi, Daigo
Nomura, Keiichi
Nozawa, Yoko
Arakaki, Seiji
Fukami, Hironobu

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1205

Pages

205--222

Subjects

Merulinidae , molecular phylogeny , taxonomy , temperate region , zooxanthellate scleractinian corals

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1205.121507

 

Abstract

A new zooxanthellate scleractinian coral, Paragoniastrea variabilis Kishi, Nomura & Fukami, sp. nov. (Scleractinia, Merulinidae), is described from non-coral reef regions of Japan and northern Taiwan. This new species was previously recognized as a morphological variant of Paragoniastrea deformis (Veron, 1990) and can be morphologically distinguished from that species by lacking groove-and-tube structures on corallite wall joints, and by having larger calices, numerous septa, and up to three corallites in one valley. The new species also formed an independent clade from its congeners, P. australensis (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857), P. deformis and P. russelli (Wells, 1954), in the molecular phylogeny based on the mitochondrial intergenic region and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers.