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Abstract
C.W. Schneider and C.E. Lane. 2008. Notes on the marine algae of the Bermudas. 9. The genus Botryocladia (Rhodophyta, Rhodymeniaceae), including B. bermudana, B. exquisita and B. flookii spp. nov. Phycologia 47: 614–629. DOI: 10.2216/08-44.1
Using morphological and molecular analyses (rbcL gene sequences), three new species, Botryocladia bermudana, B. exquisita and B. flookii, are described from the coastal waters and national aquarium of Bermuda. The new taxa are joined by two others in the island's flora, B. occidentalis and B. wynnei, the last representing a new distributional record. The cryptic species, B. bermudana, is the most common of all Botryocladia species in the islands and was known from Bermuda in the past as B. pyriformis (Børgesen) Kylin. Analysis of rbcL sequences shows that B. bermudana is most closely related to B. caraibica from the Caribbean. These two species share many characteristics in addition to their phylogentic positioning. Botryocladia exquisita is anatomically and molecularly most similar to the much smaller B. monoica from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and B. flookii bears a striking superficial resemblance to B. macaronesica from the Canary Islands. Several anatomical and reproductive characteristics differentiate the two.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Travel support was provided by a Charles A. Dana Professorship. We thank the curators at FH, MICH and NY for specimen loans. Chris Flook, LeeAnne Hinton and Patrick Talbot (Bermuda Aquarium) provided logistical support while in Bermuda, and Gary Saunders and Tanya Moore (University of New Brunswick) provided some of the DNA sequences. We thank John Huisman and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the manuscript. This is contribution no. 154 to the Bermuda Biodiversity Project (BBP) of the Bermuda Natural History Museum.