Descriptions of two new genera, six new species and three new records of Anthozoa (Cnidaria) from the Sea of Marmara

ABSTRACT

The present study describes two new genera, six new species and three new records from the Sea of Marmara. The new genus Marmara gen. nov. belonging to the family Sagartiidae is mainly characterized by having conspicuous muscular belts along the column and the absence of suckers and tenaculi on the body wall. The genus Charisactis gen. nov. belonging to the family Condylanthidae is mainly characterized by having an atypical mesentery arrangement, single siphonoglyph and homotrichs in tentacles. The other species newly described from the Sea of Marmara belong to the families Diadumenidae (one species from deep waters), Halcampoididae (one species from shallow waters), Edwardsiidae (one species from shallow waters) and Epizoanthidae (one species from deep waters). Three species, namely Epizoanthus arenaceus (family Epizoanthidae), Rolandia coralloides (family Clavulariidae) and Virgularia sp. (family Virgulariidae) are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. The external and internal anatomical features as well as cnidom structures of the species are presented and discussed with the closely related species. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:51DA9869-D786-4A8A-8C1F-62DC1BB67923

KEYWORDS:

• Soft corals
• anemones
• new species
• Sea of Marmara
• Turkey

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to colleagues in the Benthology Laboratory of Ege University for their help in collecting and sorting the benthic material; to the crews of the R/V Yunus S for their help in collecting the material; and to two anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Juan Antonio Rosas provided relevant information about Epizoanthus arenaceus from Alboran Sea. Francisco Pereila from the Museo del Mar de Ceuta facilitate us important information about the paleogeography of the region.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is financially supported by TUBITAK [project number 111Y268].