Terrazoanthus sp. 2

Reimer, James D., Poliseno, Angelo & Hoeksema, Bert W., 2014, Shallow-water zoantharians (Cnidaria, Hexacorallia) from the Central Indo-Pacific, ZooKeys 444, pp. 1-57 : 15-16

Taxon classification Animalia Zoantharia Hydrozoanthidae

17. Terrazoanthus sp. 2 Figures 14C, D, 15

Specimens examined.

NA.

Photographic records

(n=1). West Bone Lola shoal, Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi (05°03'15"S, 119°21'15"E), April 22, 1998.

Description.

With only a single photographic record available, even an informal description of this undescribed species is limited. Asides from yellow coloration, this species is outwardly similar to Terrazoanthus sp. 1 above. Polyps appear to be more crowded than in Terrazoanthus sp. 1, with 40 to 54 yellow tentacles longer than oral disk diameter (Figure 14D).

Regions recorded in this study

(Figure 15). Spermonde Archipelago (9).

Overall distribution.

Unknown, although similar specimens have been photographed in the Philippines (P. Poppe, pers. comm.).

Remarks.

This species has been traded in the aquarium trade as "yellow polyps", and is thought to be distributed primarily in Indonesia, yet no museum specimens exist, preventing this species from being formally described. Colonies often appear to be intermixed with Zoanthus spp. colonies in shallow water (J.D. Reimer, pers. obs.). Although undescribed, this putative species has been placed with the genus Terrazoanthus based on DNA sequences acquired from aquarium trade polyps ( Sinniger et al. 2005, Reimer and Fujii 2010).