Caulerpa webbiana Montagne, 1837: 354

Coppejans, Eric, Leliaert, Frederik, Verbruggen, Heroen, de Clerck, Olivier, Schils, Tom, de Vriese, Thomas & Marie, Daniel, 2004, The marine green and brown algae of Rodrigues (Mauritius, Indian Ocean), Journal of Natural History 38 (23), pp. 2959-3020 : 2988-2989

* Caulerpa webbiana Montagne, 1837: 354

( figure 18 ) References: Sartoni, 1978: 410–413; Allen and Steene, 1994: 19; Kraft, 2000: 605,

figure 35A–D; Littler and Littler, 2000: 378, figure p. 379; Payri et al., 2000: 100,

figures pp. 88, 101.

Type locality. Arrecife, Lanzarote , Canary Islands .

Vouchers. HEC 14615, 18 September 2001, western side of Cotton Bay (s.s. 13) ; HEC 14699 (zS), 20 September 2001, Rivière Banane (s.s. 12) .

Ecology. Locally abundant at about low water level, epilithic on horizontal coral substrate.

Distribution. Madagascar, Mauritius ( Børgesen, 1940: 45), Mozambique, Réunion ( Payri, 1985: 640), Rodrigues (this paper), Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa.

Note. C. webbiana is morphologically very similar to C. lanuginosa . Both species can be easily distinguished by the morphology of the branchlets on the rachis of the assimilators: C. lanuginosa has unbranched branchlets, C. webbiana has bifurcate ramuli.

Unchecked data from literature

Caulerpa cupressoides (Vahl) C. Agardh var. ericifolia (Turner) Weber-van Bosse, 1898: 335

Recorded by Dickie (1877a ~ Caulerpa ericifolia (Turner) C. Agardh ).

Caulerpa cupressoides (Vahl) C. Agardh var. mamillosa (Montagne) Weber-van Bosse, 1898: 332, 333, pl. 28, figure 6 (‘forma typica ’). Recorded by Dickie (1877a ~ Caulerpa mamillosa Montagne ).

Caulerpa serrulata (Forsskål) J. Agardh var. boryana (J. Agardh) Gilbert, 1942: 15

Recorded by Dickie (1877a ~ Caulerpa boryana J. Agardh ).

General remarks on the distribution of Caulerpa in the Mascarene Islands

Caulerpa scalpelliformis (Brown ex Turner) C. Agardh , C. urvilleana Montagne and C. fastigiata Montagne have been mentioned by Børgesen (1940) from Mauritius, but were not collected on Rodrigues. Caulerpa lanuginosa , C. nummularia and C. taxifolia , on the other hand, were observed on Rodrigues and have not been listed for Mauritius.

Figures

FIGS 14–18. Caulerpa. (14) Caulerpa cupressoides var. lycopodium f. elegans, small, elegant specimen (HEC 14691). (15) Caulerpa cupressoides var. lycopodium f. elegans, coarse specimen with richly branched assimilators (HEC 14820). (16) Caulerpa sertularioides f. sertularioides, last order branchlets in a single plane (HEC 14739). (17) Caulerpa sertularioides f. farlowii, last order branchlets in several planes (HEC 14690). (18) Caulerpa webbiana (HEC 14699). Scale bars: 1 cm.

FIGS 2–6. Chlorophyta. (2) Microdictyon tenuius, detail of branching and anastomosing patterns (HEC 14849). (3) Bryopsis pennata var. pennata, branchlets of last order contiguous and in a single plane (HEC 14796 p.p.). (4) Bryopsis pennata var. leprieurii, branchlets of last order interrupted and in a single plane (HEC 14757).(5) Bryopsis pennata var. secunda, branchlets of last order curved in one direction (HEC 14796 p.p.). (6) Chamaedoris delphinii (HEC 14617). Scale bars: 250 mm (2); 5 mm (3–5); 1 cm (6).