Kotatea niwa Kessel & Alderslade & Bilewitch & Schnabel & Norman & Potts & Gardner 2022, gen. et sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kessel, Gustav M.
name: Alderslade, Philip
name: Bilewitch, Jaret P.
name: Schnabel, Kareen E.
name: Norman, Jerry
name: Potts, Romana Tekaharoa
name: Gardner, Jonathan P. A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Cnidaria
Anthozoa
Alcyonacea
Alcyoniidae
Kotatea
Kotatea niwa

description: Kotatea niwa gen. et sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 21F82707-8C02-4C9E-A4B0-5672E5666601
Figs 1A–B, 2G, 14B, 22–23
Diagnosis
Colonies robustly lobate, orange with small red spots, and with white polyps. Collaret and points may be colourless or dark orange to red, and consist of warty, mostly flattened spindles and thorny clubs. Tentacles contain irregular, warty, scale-like sclerites. Polyp neck contains abundant warty rod-like forms. Polyp mounds contain similar sclerites and thorny clubs. Lobe surface contains thorny clubs and warty double-heads. Base surface contains warty radiates grading into double-heads, a few spheroids and tends to lack clubs. Lobe and base interior contains oval or rod-like forms girdled with warts, and highly sculptured spheroids and double-heads.
Etymology
The species is named for NIWA, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, where the research described herein was conducted.
Material examined
Holotype NEW ZEALAND • Northland, Piwhane / Spirits Bay; 34.4167° S, 172.7833° E; depth 17–20 m; Apr. 1999; J. Starmer leg.; MAGNT C015226.
Paratype NEW ZEALAND • 2 specimens; Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, ~ 1 km NE of Moekawa / South West Island; 34.1667° S, 172.0833° E; depth 17 m; 20 Apr. 1999; J. Starmer leg.; MAGNT C015224.
Additional material
NEW ZEALAND • 5 specimens; Northland, Bay of Islands, ~ 1 km NW of Okahu Island; 35.1917° S, 174.1922° E; depth 37–40 m; 3 Sep. 2009; Oceans Survey 2020 exped.; stn KAH0907 /194; NIWA 58543.
Description (holotype MAGNT C015226)
Colony form
The holotype is a lobate colony, measuring 1.5 cm in height by 2.5 cm width (Fig. 14B). The surface of the colony (ethanol-preserved) is orange with small red spots, which are produced by red polyp neck and mound sclerites. Polyps occur all over the colony’s surface but are sparser towards its base and absent from the very short basal section. Polyps are white, 0.5–0.75 mm tall when expanded, with colourless collaret and points (Fig. 2G), but see variability section below.
Sclerites
Points are composed of warty spindles (~ 0.15–0.25 mm long), most of which are flattened, and thorny clubs distally (~ 0.08–0.22 mm long) (Fig. 22A–B). Proximally, the spindles become larger, more robust, and more crescentic (~ 0.2–0.38 mm long), transitioning into a transverse orientation and merging with the collaret (Fig. 22A). The number of collaret rows is variable depending on polyp size, but in large polyps this is approximately seven rows (Fig. 23C). The tentacles contain irregular, warty, scale-like forms, often slightly crescentic (~ 0.05–0.18 mm long) (Fig. 22C). The polyp neck contains abundant warty rod-like forms (~ 0.08–0.1 mm long) (Fig. 22D), which extend into the polyp mound, where they gradually give way to thorny clubs (~ 0.06–0.15 mm long) (Fig. 22E). The surface of the lobes between polyp mounds contains a mixture of thorny clubs and warty double-heads (~ 0.08–0.15 mm long) (Fig. 22F). The surface of the base contains warty radiates grading into double-heads, and a few spheroids but tends to lack clubs (Fig. 23A). The interior of both the lobes and the base contains highly sculptured spheroids and double-heads, as well as some oval or rod-like forms girdled with warts, all of which are usually larger than the sclerites of the surface regions (~ 0.12–0.2 mm long) (Figs 22G, 23B).
Variability
Both the paratype and NIWA 58543 possess collaret and point sclerites which are coloured dark orange to red (colourless in holotype) in their smaller polyps. All three preserved lots are otherwise very similar in colony colour and growth form (Fig. 14B), and the paratype and NIWA 58543 correspond very closely to the holotype in terms of sclerite composition and size ranges (Figs 22–23).
Comparisons
Kotatea niwa gen. et sp. nov. is most similar to K. kurakootingotingo gen. et sp. nov. and K. lobata gen. et sp. nov., which share its robust, lobate growth form. Differences from these species are discussed under their respective accounts above.
Habitat and distribution
Specimens of Kotatea niwa gen. et sp. nov. were collected from the Manawatāwhi/Three Kings Islands, Piwhane/Spirits Bay and the Bay of Islands at depths between 17 and 40 m (Fig. 1A–B).
description: Published as part of Kessel, Gustav M., Alderslade, Philip, Bilewitch, Jaret P., Schnabel, Kareen E., Norman, Jerry, Potts, Romana Tekaharoa & Gardner, Jonathan P. A., 2022, Dead man's fingers point to new taxa: two new genera of New Zealand soft corals (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) and a revision of Alcyonium aurantiacum Quoy & Gaimard, 1833, pp. 1-85 in European Journal of Taxonomy 837 on pages 40-43, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.837.1923, http://zenodo.org/record/7084444