Kotatea teorowai 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 teorowai

description: Kotatea teorowai gen. et sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0057DD86-BCD3-4CE2-8847-8F9E21D6AD0D
Figs 1B, 24B, 26E, 27
Māori name
Te Orowai.
Diagnosis
Colony white with branching lobes and white polyps. Collaret and points colourless and composed of slender, tuberculate spindles and well-developed thorny clubs. Tentacles contain irregular, warty, scalelike sclerites. Polyp neck contains warty rod-like and spiny spindle-like forms. Polyp mounds contain thorny clubs, radiates, spiny spindle-like and warty rod-like forms. Lobe surface contains radiates, spiny spindles and thorny clubs grading into leafy spheroids. Stalk surface contains spiny radiates and spindlelike forms. Interior contains irregularly branched or thorny radiates, but sclerites very sparse, especially towards base.
Etymology
The species name was composed by the Ngāti Kurī Tira Me Te Wā Taiao (Science) Collective, and is a combination of the Māori words oro, to resound, echo, resonate or rumble, and wai, water. Ngāti Kurī provided the following kōrero (narrative): “The many surging currents are absorbed and deflected by the many branches of Te Orowai, thus creating the illusion of a symphony of sounds emanating from the depths of our oceans. There is a resonance of the many voices of the sea animals. Te ha o Hinemoana (the breath of Hinemoana) gives life and purpose to the many complementing sounds of the deep. The rhythm of the ocean is oft captured in the hōhonu mātauranga (deep and profound knowledge) of our tūpuna (ancestors). Our modes of learning are orchestrated by the ebb and flow of rhythmic patterns of nature. We create poetic imagery to memorise and recite our many varied kōrero (stories/narratives) and events through mōteatea (poetic chant), waiata (song), haka (dance), whakataukī (proverbs), kōrero pūrakau (the telling of myths and legends) and so on. Learning is a lifelong process, and we need to capture the diverse mātauranga (knowledge/wisdom) within the taiao (natural world) to allow nature to breathe life and knowledge into humanity. Te Orowai brings harmony and creative expression to our natural and celestial worlds.”
Material examined
Holotype NEW ZEALAND • Northland, ~ 12 km NW of North Cape; 34.3570° S, 172.8850° E; depth 69 m; 29 Jan. 1999; NIWA exped.; stn Z9712 (KAH9901 /88); NIWA 27358.
Description (holotype, NIWA 27358)
Colony form
The holotype consists of an entirely white, lobate colony (ethanol-preserved), measuring 6.5 cm in height by 9 cm in width (Fig. 24B). Several major lobes arise from a thick stalk, and divide into numerous smaller, rounded lobes of various thickness. Polyps are most densely packed at the ends of the lobes but occur all over the colony, except for a ~ 1 cm proximal region of the base. The white polyps are all retracted and have colourless collaret and points.
Sclerites
Points are composed of slender, tuberculate spindles (~ 0.18–0.3 mm long), and often well-developed thorny clubs distally (~ 0.1–0.18 mm long) (Fig. 27A–B). Proximally, the spindles become slightly larger and more crescentic (~ 0.25–0.4 mm long), transitioning into a transverse orientation and merging with the collaret, which is six to eight rows deep (Figs 26E, 27A). The tentacles contain irregular, warty, scale-like forms, often slightly crescentic (~ 0.08–0.2 mm long) (Fig. 27C). The polyp neck contains mostly warty rod-like and spiny spindle-like forms (~ 0.06–0.16 mm long), which become larger and more abundant towards the neck base (Fig. 27D). The polyp mounds mainly contain thorny clubs along with some radiates, and spiny spindle-like and warty rod-like forms (~ 0.06–0.08 mm long), which all grade into one another (Fig. 27E). The surface of the lobes between polyp mounds contains radiates, spiny spindles and thorny clubs grading into leafy spheroids (~ 0.06–0.1 mm long) (Fig. 27F). The surface of the stalk contains spiny radiates and spindle-like forms, some with long processes, which tend to be larger and more heavily branched than those in other regions of the colony (~ 0.08–0.15 mm long) (Fig. 27G). Interior sclerites are very sparse in the lobes and almost entirely absent in the lower sections of the base, occurring in any appreciable number only from around halfway up the colony stalk, and are comprised of irregularly branched or thorny radiates (~ 0.06–0.12 mm long) (Fig. 27H).
Variability
The holotype is the only specimen of K. teorowai gen. et sp. nov. available at the time of writing.
Comparisons
Kotatea teorowai gen. et sp. nov. is most similar to K. amicispongia gen. et sp. nov., K. aurantiaca gen. et comb. nov. and K. raekura gen. et sp. nov., differences from which are discussed under each of these species.
Habitat and distribution
Kotatea teorowai gen. et sp. nov. can occur syntopically with K. kapotaiora gen. et sp. nov., as the holotypes for both species were collected together in the same sample.
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 48-50, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.837.1923, http://zenodo.org/record/7084444