Notodysiferus, Alderslade, 2003

Alderslade, P., 2003, A new genus and new species of soft coral (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea: Alcyoniidae) from the south western region of Australia, Zootaxa 175 (1), pp. 1-10 : 4

Notodysiferus , new genus

Diagnosis. Colonies are large and thickly encrusting, with lobes branched into finger­like processes. Polyps are dimorphic and do not have sclerites. Both siphonozooids and autozooids occur together on most of the area of the lobes, but siphonozooids alone occur on the basal parts of the lobes and on the polypary surface between the lobes. The autozooids are retractile, commonly into calyx­like, coenenchymal protrusions. The siphonozooids on the base of the lobes and between the lobes occur on small coenenchymal papillae. Sclerites are small 8­radiate capstans and their derivatives, up to 0.12 mm in length. The genus is known only from shallow water and is zooxanthellate.

Type species. Notodysiferus dhondtae n.sp., by original designation.

Etymology. The generic name is formed from the transliterated Greek words noto (south), dysis (west) and ferus (wild animal). The latter in the sense of untamed as it is unlikely the coral was ferocious. Gender masculine.

Remarks. In its general colonial morphology, the new genus resembles some species of the massive, lobed, zooxanthellate, alcyoniid genera Cladiella Gray, 1869 , Lobophytum von Marenzeller, 1886 , Sinularia May, 1898 , Dampia Alderslade, 1983 , and Klyxum Alderslade, 2000 . Of these five genera, Dampia would bare the closest resemblance due the possession of calyces (see illustrations in Fabricius & Alderslade 2001). Only Lobophytum , however, has dimorphic polyps, but this genus lacks 8­radiate sclerites. The only dimorphic alcyoniid genera with similar sclerites are Minabea Utinomi, 1957 , Paraminabea Williams & Alderslade, 1999 , and Verseveldtia Williams, 1990 , all of which are not zooxanthellate. Of these, only Paraminabea has species that are lobed, and all species of this genus are generally highly coloured, owing to pigments in the sclerites. Minabea is a deep­water digitate genus from New Zealand and Japan (see Williams & Alderslade 1999), while Verseveldtia is a deep­water capitate taxon. The only published records of Verseveldtia are from the east coast of South Africa, but it also occurs off Western Australia (my own unpublished data).