Platyzoanthus mussoides Saville-Kent, 1893

Oh, Ren Min, Neo, Mei Lin, Yap, Nicholas Wei Liang, Jain, Sudhanshi Sanjeev, Tan, Ria, Chen, Chaolun Allen & Huang, Danwei, 2019, Citizen science meets integrated taxonomy to uncover the diversity and distribution of Corallimorpharia in Singapore, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 67, pp. 306-321 : 314

Platyzoanthus mussoides Saville-Kent, 1893

( Fig. 7 )

Material examined. 1 specimen, ZRC.CNI.1359 (REL203), Raffles Lighthouse, Singapore, coll. S.S. Jain, August 2017 – October 2017 .

Description. Body column low, disc shape highly irregular. Individuals may have more than one oral centre. Tentacles usually exceptionally short, slightly lobate, covering most of the oral disc. Colour of the disc light to reddish brown. Tentacles similar colour as oral disc. Species grows in clusters of overlapping individuals, usually spread across the surface of coral rock.

Remarks. Description follows Saville-Kent (1893). This species was recorded in Queensland, Australia (Fautin, 2009, 2016). Locally, one variant is known as the ‘ridged’ corallimorpharian and previously found on the southern shores ( Table 2). The other variant with invaginations on the disc has never been observed prior to this study. Specimens collected in this study are of subtidal origin, and no intertidal specimens have been encountered.

Figures

Fig. 7. Platyzoanthus mussoides. A, B, REL203 in situ; C, D, REL240 in situ. Scale bar = 1 cm.