Notodysiferus dhondtae Alderslade 2003, new species
Creators: name: Alderslade, P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Cnidaria
Anthozoa
Alcyonacea
Alcyoniidae
Notodysiferus
Notodysiferus dhondtae

description: Notodysiferus dhondtae, new species (Figs. 1­4)
Holotype: NTM C14221, south of Mount Martin, King George Sound, Albany, Western Australia, 35°00.8' S, 117°57.0' E, depth 4 m, AIMS bioprospecting team, 27 March 1989.
Description. The holotype consists of four fragments from a larger colony (Fig. 2 A­ D). There is only one portion of colony edge that is complete with lobes and base surface down to the place of attachment (Fig. 2A). This fragment is about 63 mm high, 63 mm across its broadest dimension and 55 mm at its thickest. The smallest fragment (Fig. 2C) only consists of polypary lobes. Most colonial lobes are branched into several more or less finger­like processes, the shortest of which is 10 mm in length and 7 mm thick, and the longest is 60 mm in length and about 15 mm thick.
Polyps are dimorphic. The autozooids are retractile and their tentacles have a single row of 10­12 pinnules along each side of the rachis. Most autozooids have retracted within calyx­like coenenchymal mounds that are about 1.2 mm high and 1.26 – 2.4 mm across at the base. In a few places, however, the autozooid­mounds are extremely low or non­existent. Siphonozooids are scattered between the autozooids, and may even occur on the autozooid­mounds. They are extremely difficult to detect, especially in the parts of the colony where the mounds are well developed. Figure 3A shows a fragment of a polypary lobe where the surface is more or less flat. The fragment has been decalcified to more clearly reveal the location of the zooids. The reticulate subsurface canal system is also made more visible by this method. The contrast of the figure has been enhanced in order to show the features more clearly.
Much of the small amount of polypary surface that is visibly between the autozooidmounds, and often also the surface of these mounds, is finely cockled. On the basal regions of the lobes, and on the small amount of polypary surface between the lobes, small papillae arise from the cockled surface (Fig. 2D,F). These papillae are the sites of siphonozooids. No autozooids are present in these regions. Figure 2E shows a thin, handcut, tangential section of a papillate region. The section has been decalcified and the view is the subsurface aspect. The siphonozooids are clearly visible, as is the zooxanthellaefilled subsurface canal system.
The sclerites of the polypary surface (Fig. 3B) are tuberculate 8­radiate capstans, 0.04­ 0.08 mm in length, a few of which are twinned as crosses. Deeper into the coenenchyme the tubercles of the sclerites increase in size obscuring their narrow waist and the sclerites become larger. In the centre of the lobe the sclerites are about 0.1 mm long and most are quite oval in outline (Fig. 3C).
The sclerites of the surface of the base are like those of the surface of the polypary. As in the lobes, the size of the basal sclerites increases deeper into the coenenchyme, up to a length of about 0.12 mm (Fig. 4). There are no sclerites in the polyps.
Colour. Field notes state the live colony was brown with orange polyps.
Etymology. This species is named for Mme. Marie­José d’Hondt, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, an infrequent but extremely adept student of octocorals who has been of great help to me on many occasions.
description: Published as part of Alderslade, P., 2003, A new genus and new species of soft coral (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea: Alcyoniidae) from the south western region of Australia, pp. 1-10 in Zootaxa 175 (1) on pages 4-8, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.175.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5014239