Sinularia polydactyla (Ehrenberg, 1834) (Cnidaria, Octocorallia) re-examined, with the description of a new species

Leen P van Ofwegen; Catherine S McFadden; Yehuda Benayahu

doi:10.3897/zookeys.581.7455

Sinularia polydactyla (Ehrenberg, 1834) (Cnidaria, Octocorallia) re-examined, with the description of a new species

Zookeys. 2016 Apr 14:(581):71-126. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.581.7455. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Leen P van Ofwegen¹, Catherine S McFadden², Yehuda Benayahu³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Marine Zoology, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands.
² Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA.
³ Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Israel.

Abstract

Sinularia polydactyla (Ehrenberg, 1834) is re-described and a lectotype assigned. This led to examination of related material from various Indo-Pacific regions. Consequently, Sinularia levi sp. n. is described from Eilat, Israel (Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea) and Sinularia compressa Tixier-Durivault, 1945 and Sinularia candidula Verseveldt and Benayahu, 1983 are synonymized with Sinularia polydactyla. Additional specimens identified in the literature as Sinularia polydactyla are provisionally reassigned to other taxa.

Keywords: Alcyonacea; COI; Indo-Pacific; Red Sea; coral reefs; mtMutS; new species; phylogeny; re-description; taxonomy.