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Every day new species from the animal and plant kingdoms are discovered and described, often after months of field research.
Thus the idealized, exploratory yet adventurous approach, but, the majority of species discoveries actually occur in the processing of collected specimens in a museum, according to Dr. Gustav M. Kessel of Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa-New Zealand.
The soft coral Alcyonium aurantiacum, known as "Dead man's fingers," was one of the first corals scientifically described during the Astrolabe expeditions to New Zealand.
Typical of the time, the original description by Quoy & Gaimard is vague and based largely on characteristics that have little diagnostic value by today's standards. The only other taxonomic treatment of Alcyonium aurantiacum is the description by Benham (1928), which unfortunately further obscures the diversity of New Zealand coastal soft corals by assigning both lobate and encrusting specimens to this coral.
Consequently, several morphologically distinct forms were identified as possibly belonging to Alcyonium aurantiacum, despite being highly variable in color, colony shape, and sclerite morphology.
Dr. Kessel took on this challenge and his work resulted in an initial description of a whopping 10 new species, all previously assigned to Alcyonium aurantiacum.
One of these new species is the soft coral Kotatea amicispongia, which colonizes on sponges
Colonies of the "sponge-loving soft coral" can grow to about 2 cm high and 3 cm wide.
Three primary lobes emanate from a basal stalk about 0.5 cm high, each of which divides into several smaller lobes.
The base of the colony is formed by a short membrane that partially encrusts the sponge substrate.
Polyps grow over the entire surface of the colony, but are concentrated on the tips of the lobes and are rare on the basal membrane.
Polyps are white, 0.5 - 1.5 mm in size when expanded, with colorless tips.
Color:
Yellow-orange colonies with white polyps, branched lobes, usually growing on a sponge.
Tentacles contain irregular, warty, scale-like sclerites, polyp neck contains tuberculate to warty spindles., polyp mounds contain spiny clubs.
The interior of lobes and base contains spindles and rays.
Etymology:
The species name is a combination of the Latin "amici" meaning "friend" and "spongia" meaning "sponge", roughly meaning "friend of the sponge", referring to the habit of specimens growing on sponges.
Literature reference:
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
European Journal of Taxonomy 837: 1-85, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2022.837.1923, URL: http://zoobank.org/7cbac71f-ff75-411c-9ce9-aa633e16438e
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Thus the idealized, exploratory yet adventurous approach, but, the majority of species discoveries actually occur in the processing of collected specimens in a museum, according to Dr. Gustav M. Kessel of Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Aotearoa-New Zealand.
The soft coral Alcyonium aurantiacum, known as "Dead man's fingers," was one of the first corals scientifically described during the Astrolabe expeditions to New Zealand.
Typical of the time, the original description by Quoy & Gaimard is vague and based largely on characteristics that have little diagnostic value by today's standards. The only other taxonomic treatment of Alcyonium aurantiacum is the description by Benham (1928), which unfortunately further obscures the diversity of New Zealand coastal soft corals by assigning both lobate and encrusting specimens to this coral.
Consequently, several morphologically distinct forms were identified as possibly belonging to Alcyonium aurantiacum, despite being highly variable in color, colony shape, and sclerite morphology.
Dr. Kessel took on this challenge and his work resulted in an initial description of a whopping 10 new species, all previously assigned to Alcyonium aurantiacum.
One of these new species is the soft coral Kotatea amicispongia, which colonizes on sponges
Colonies of the "sponge-loving soft coral" can grow to about 2 cm high and 3 cm wide.
Three primary lobes emanate from a basal stalk about 0.5 cm high, each of which divides into several smaller lobes.
The base of the colony is formed by a short membrane that partially encrusts the sponge substrate.
Polyps grow over the entire surface of the colony, but are concentrated on the tips of the lobes and are rare on the basal membrane.
Polyps are white, 0.5 - 1.5 mm in size when expanded, with colorless tips.
Color:
Yellow-orange colonies with white polyps, branched lobes, usually growing on a sponge.
Tentacles contain irregular, warty, scale-like sclerites, polyp neck contains tuberculate to warty spindles., polyp mounds contain spiny clubs.
The interior of lobes and base contains spindles and rays.
Etymology:
The species name is a combination of the Latin "amici" meaning "friend" and "spongia" meaning "sponge", roughly meaning "friend of the sponge", referring to the habit of specimens growing on sponges.
Literature reference:
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
European Journal of Taxonomy 837: 1-85, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2022.837.1923, URL: http://zoobank.org/7cbac71f-ff75-411c-9ce9-aa633e16438e
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
