Three New Species of the Sun Coral Genus Tubastraea (Scleractinia: Dendrophylliidae) from Hong Kong, China
Communicated by Benny Kwok Kan Chan
Tubastraea is a genus of azooxanthellate scleractinian corals belonging to the family Dendrophylliidae, which are commonly called sun corals. This genus currently has only seven recognized species. In this paper, we report three new species of Tubastraea, including T. dendroida sp. nov., which has a tree-like colony, T. violacea sp. nov., which has violet polyps, and T. chloromura sp. nov., which has olive green polyps. These species are distinct in their septal structures, as well as their rDNA sequences including the entire ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2, and a segment of the 18S and 28S genes.
Keywords
Scleractinian coral, Azooxanthellate, Ahermatypic coral, Dendrophylliid, South China Sea.
