Halimeda pygmaea and Halimeda pumila (Bryopsidales, Chlorophyta): two new dwarf species from fore reef slopes in Fiji and the Bahamas

Abstract

H. Verbruggen, D.S. Littler and M.M. Littler. 2007. Halimeda pygmaea and Halimeda pumila (Bryopsidales, Chlorophyta): two new dwarf species from fore reef slopes in Fiji and the Bahamas. Phycologia 46: 513–520. DOI: 10.2216/07-01.1

Halimeda pygmaea and Halimeda pumila, two diminutive calcified green algal species, are described from material collected on Fijian and Bahamian reef slopes, respectively. The species resemble Halimeda cryptica in having a single siphon traversing the nodes between subsequent calcified segments and living in sheltered fore-reef slope habitats. They differ from H. cryptica by their diminutive size and various anatomical features. Molecular sequence data (tufA) underpin the identity of H. pygmaea and reveal its phylogenetic position as a sister taxon to H. cryptica in the Halimeda section Micronesicae.

Key Words::

• Anatomy
• Bryopsidales
• Halimeda cryptica
• Halimeda pumila
• Halimeda pygmaea
• Molecular phylogeny
• Morphology
• Taxonomy
• tufA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge Caroline Vlaeminck for generating the sequence data, Barrett Brooks for assisting with field and laboratory work and Harold Robinson for the Latin translation of the diagnosis. We thank Olivier De Clerck, Wiebe Kooistra, Tom and Courtney Leigh, Frederik Leliaert, Antoine N'Yeurt and Claude Payri for providing samples or assisting in the field. Funding was provided by the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders (postdoctoral fellowship and travel grants (H.V.) and research grants G.0136.01 and G.0142.05 to the Phycology Research Group of Ghent University); Harbor Branch Oceanographic Insititution (HBOI Contribution 1657), and the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida (SMS Contribution 690).