Xenia novaebritanniae Ashworth 1900
Creators: name: Halász, Anna
name: Mcfadden, Catherine S.
name: Toonen, Robert
name: Benayahu, Yehuda
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Cnidaria
Anthozoa
Alcyonacea
Xeniidae
Xenia
Xenia novaebritanniae

description: Xenia novaebritanniae Ashworth, 1900
Figs. 11, 12
Xenia novaebritanniae Ashworth, 1900: 521–522, plate 52–53, Figs. 1–3, 5–9
Xenia novaebritanniae; Benayahu 1990: 115, table 1, listed only; Reinicke 1997: 40–41
Material. Syntype: X. novaebritanniae BML 1962.7.20.148, South Pacific Ocean, Lifu, Loyalty Island, November 1896, Syntype: BML 1962.7.20.149, Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Talili Bay, 1895.
Description. The syntype BML 1962.7.20.148 is 30 mm high; its stalk is 10 mm long and about 10 mm wide at its base and 20 mm wide at the uppermost part. The colony was cut into two more or less identical parts. There is a small fragment under the same collection number. The polyp body is up to 3 mm long, and the tentacles are up to 2 mm long, featuring two rows of pinnules on each side. The pinnules are short and stout, up to 0.2 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, 9–10 in the outermost row with no gap to occasionally a gap of one pinnule-width between adjacent pinnules.
Sclerites are ellipsoid platelets, 0.013 –0.020 X 0.017 –0.024 mm in diameter (Fig 11, n=20). They are composed of calcite rods, uniform in width throughout their length. A fractured sclerite revealed that the rods are arranged radially at the periphery, occasionally branched at their distal end, but oriented randomly at the sclerite center (Fig. 11c). The sclerite surface is granular and often fractured.
The dimensions of BML 1962.7.20.149 correspond to those of the other syntype (BML 1962.7.20.148). The polyp body is up to 2 mm long, and the tentacles are up to 3 mm long, featuring three and sometimes four rows of pinnules on each side. The pinnules are short and stout, up to 0.2 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, 10–14 in the outermost row with a gap of one pinnule-width between adjacent pinnules. Its sclerites are ellipsoid platelets, 0.012 –0.017 X 0.018 –0.022 mm in diameter (Fig. 12a, n =20). They are composed of calcite rods (Fig. 12c). The granular surface of the sclerites is fractured.
Remarks. Ashworth (1900) described X. novaebritanniae as featuring three rows of pinnules with 8–12 in each row. Examination of BML 1962.7.20.148 revealed that it has only two rows of pinnules and thus does not belong to the species and was probably mislabeled. However, the original description closely corresponds to the current findings for BML 1962.7.20.149. Benayahu (1990) listed this species for the Red Sea, based on the original description. Reinicke (1997) examined the two syntypes and his description noted three and occasionally four rows of pinnules, 10–12 in the outermost row, similar to our description of BML 1962.7.20.149.
Similar species and conclusion. Both X. novaebritanniae and X. crassa feature three and occasionally four rows of pinnules and a similar number of pinnules in the outermost row (10–14 vs. 13–18); however, as X. crassa sclerites possess crests on their surface, the two species should be considered as separate.
Distribution. South Pacific Ocean: Loyalty Island, Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Red Sea.
description: Published as part of Halász, Anna, Mcfadden, Catherine S., Toonen, Robert & Benayahu, Yehuda, 2019, Re-description of type material of Xenia Lamarck, 1816 (Octocorallia: Xeniidae), pp. 201-239 in Zootaxa 4652 (2) on pages 220-222, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4652.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3363653