Erythropodium Kölliker 1865

Carpinelli, Ágatha Nascimento, Cordeiro, Ralf Tarciso Silva, Neves, Leonardo Mitrano, Moura, Rodrigo Leão De & Kitahara, Marcelo Visentini, 2020, Erythropodium caribaeorum (Duchassaing and Michelotti, 1860) (Cnidaria Alcyonacea), an additional alien coral in the Southwestern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4822 (2), pp. 175-190 : 177

Genus Erythropodium Kölliker 1865

Erythropodium caribaeorum ( Duchassaing and Michelotti 1860)

Description. Encrusting and membranous carpet-like colony, strongly attached to the substrate and with up to 25 evenly distributed polyps (<5 cm) per square centimeter. Pinnules elongate, arranged in a single pair of rows (one at each side of a tentacle). Calyces inconspicuous or absent. When present, calyces form small mounds with eight lobules each. Sclerites are six-radiate ( Fig. 2 ), arranged in two layers with similar sclerites in terms of form and size ( Table 1 ). Sclerites ( Fig. 2 ) evenly distributed in coenenchyme, polyp body wall, tentacles and pinnules, slightly smaller and more densely packed in tentacles and pinnules. Cortical layer thick, translucent or white. Inner layer slender with slightly smaller dark-red sclerites, sometimes fused.

Phylogenetic analysis. Sequencing of nuclear 28SrDNA resulted in ~700 bp, and the mitochondrial mtMutS and COI+igr in ~720 bp each, yielding a concatenated alignment of 1.202 phylogenetically informative sites. All analyses resulted in similar topologies ( Fig. 3 ) and match E. caribaeorum (GenBank accession number: GQ342480 — specimen RMNH Coel. 40829) with a p- distance of only 0.3%. A slightly low bootstrap branch support was found with BI when compared to ML.

Distribution and abundance. In the SWA, E. caribaeorum seems to be contained to the study site in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, where a single 2 m 2 colony was recorded at 5 m depth.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Sclerites of Erythropodium caribaeorum. A: six-radiates from coenenchymal inner layer (usually larger and reddish); B: six-radiates from coenenchymal cortical layer (smaller and translucent).

FIGURE 3. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic reconstruction of the Octocorallia, including the non-native Erythropodium caribaeorum (sample 1—indicated in blue) sampled in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Colored circles at each node indicate their statistical support (aBayesian and SH- Like> 80%; bootstrap x1000> 60%).