Pinnule-less polyps: a new genus and new species of Indo-Pacific Clavulariidae and validation of the soft coral genus Acrossota and the family Acrossotidae (Coelenterata: Octocorallia)

Abstract

Clavularia amboinensis Burchardt, a species described as possessing simple, pinnule-less tentacles (a fact refuted by later authors) is confirmed to be as described and is transferred as a new combination to Acrossota Bourne — a genus dismissed until now by a number of authors. The species is compared to recently collected material with live photographs. A second new genus and species, Knopia octocontacanalis, is also described. This taxon resembles Acrossota in general form, but has tentacles where the pinnules appear as though they are fused side to side along the tentacles’ lateral margins. Preliminary phylogenetic analyses of two mitochondrial genes support placement of Knopia in Clavulariidae and retention of genus Acrossota in Bourne’s unrecognised family Acrossotidae.