Conspecificity of Holmesia neurymenioides with Reinboldiella warburgii (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) from northeastern Taiwan on the basis of cystocarp development and rbcL sequence analysis

Abstract

S.-M. Lin and M.H. Hommersand. 2007. Conspecificity of Holmesia neurymenioides with Reinboldiella warburgii (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) from northeastern Taiwan on the basis of cystocarp development and rbcL sequence analysis. Phycologia 46: 247–256. DOI: 10.2216/06-48.1

Holmesia neurymenioides (Okamura) Okamura was originally described from St. Tiago, northeastern Taiwan; however, this alga has not been re-collected in Taiwan since it was first described and its carposporophyte development is virtually unknown. Its growth pattern is not typical for Delesseriaceae, in which the axial cell cuts off two lateral and two transverse periaxial cells. Instead, the vegetative development corresponds to a basal type in the tribe Ceramieae (Ceramiaceae) in which the axial cell cut off two lateral and four transverse periaxial cells. The procarp consists of a three- to four-celled carpogonial branch and a single lateral sterile filament borne on either of the two lateral periaxial cells, and the carposporangia-bearing gonimoblasts are more or less naked, surrounded only by five involucral branchlets that originate from the other five periaxial cells in the fertile axial segment. We conclude that this alga does not belong in the family Delesseriaceae but that it should be placed in the genus Reinboldiella in the family Ceramiaceae. Its correct name is Reinboldiella warburgii (Heydrich) Yoshida & Mikami on the basis of cystocarp development. This taxonomic revision is highly supported by rbcL sequence analysis.

Key Words::

• Ceramiaceae
• Cystocarp development
• Holmesia neurymenioides
• Reinboldiella warburgii
• Rhodophyta
• Taiwan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project was mainly supported by the National Science Council (Taiwan) grants (NSC 94-2621-B-143-001 & NSC 95-2621-B-143-001) to S.M.L. and was supported in part by NSF PEET (USA) grant DEB-032841 to M.H.H. We thank Dr. M. Masuda, curator of the Okamura Herbarium, for his help with the loan of the Syntype specimens of Holmesia neurymenioides examined in this study. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which have improved the quality of this article.