Cladiella arbusculoides Verseveldt & Benayahu, 1978

Lazar, Einav, Mcfadden, Catherine S., Huchon, Dorothée & Benayahu, Yehuda, 2025, Redescription of type material of the genus Cladiella Gray, 1869 (Octocorallia, Malacalcyonacea, Cladiellidae) from the Red Sea, Zootaxa 5674 (1), pp. 1-84 : 9-12

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5674.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FF8F0124-E9C0-45E0-9989-C0B74BF11036
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039787D2-FC50-FFDF-EDA9-FEA889CCE3FF
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Cladiella arbusculoides Verseveldt & Benayahu, 1978
status

Treatment

Cladiella arbusculoides Verseveldt & Benayahu, 1978 View in CoL

( Figs. 2A View FIGURE 2 , 3 View FIGURE 3 & 4 View FIGURE 4 )

Cladiella arbusculoides Verseveldt & Benayahu, 1978: 59–60 View in CoL , Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 , pl. I Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 & 2 View FIGURE 2 . Material examined. Holotype. SMNHTAU_ Co _13272 (=NS13272), Egypt, Sharm el Sheikh, Northern Red Sea, Egypt, 3 m, 7 September 1976, coll. Y. Benayahu.

Description. The stalked holotype is 37 mm high and 36 mm wide ( Fig. 2A View FIGURE 2 ). The stalk is smooth, obconical triangle-shaped, and divided into three branches bearing digitate lobes that give rise to side lobules. The lobes are mostly arranged in one plane of the colony, with the expanded polyps more crowded in the distal part of the lobules.

The sclerome of the polyps includes platelets featuring a waist-like lateral narrowing, some of them are figure eights and a few others are rods, 0.03–0.06 mm long ( Fig. 3A View FIGURE 3 ). The surface of the polyp sclerites features a uniform cristate-like structure. The surface of the lobes has poorly developed dumbbells, 0.06–0.09 mm long, featuring nearly round or, mostly, blunt-ended conical tubercles ( Fig. 3B View FIGURE 3 ). The interior of the lobes features dumbbells, 0.07–0.09 mm long, with pointed conical and blunt-ended conical tubercles ( Fig. 3C View FIGURE 3 ). These dumbbells present a distinct waist, 0.02–0.03 mm wide and 0.01–0.02 mm long. Similarly, the surface of the colony base has poorly developed dumbbells, 0.07-0.11 mm long, mostly with blunt-ended conical tubercles ( Fig. 4A View FIGURE 4 ). The dumbbells from the interior of the base are 0.09–0.12 mm long ( Fig. 4B View FIGURE 4 ) featuring a bare waist, 0.03–0.06 mm wide and 0.01–0.02 mm long, and are ornamented with conical or blunt-ended conical tubercles.

Color. The ethanol-preserved holotype is cream.

Remarks. In general, the current findings correspond to the original description of the holotype ( Verseveldt & Benayahu 1978). The colony shape including the branched lobes ( Fig. 2A View FIGURE 2 ), as reflected by in the species name, along with the type of polyp platelets featuring a uniform cristate-like structure ( Fig. 3A View FIGURE 3 ) are both suggested to be diagnostic of C. arbusculoides . The current species description depicts for the first time a cristate-like surface structure of Cladiella polyp platelets and rods. It should be noted that this species features dumbbells up to 0.12 mm long, the longest recorded for the genus, and similar to some other congeneric Red Sea types (see Table 2).

diagnostic features (D: dumbbell sclerites, PDD: poorly developed dumbbells, sclerite dimension refers to length).

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