Waheed Zarinah, Benzoni Francesca, van der Meij Sancia E T, Terraneo Tullia I, Hoeksema Bert W
Department of Marine Zoology, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands ; Borneo Marine Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126 Milan, Italy.
Zookeys. 2015 Aug 12(517):1-37. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.517.9308. eCollection 2015.
Layang-Layang is a small island part of an oceanic atoll in the Spratly Islands off Sabah, Malaysia. As the reef coral fauna in this part of the South China Sea is poorly known, a survey was carried out in 2013 to study the species composition of the scleractinian coral families Fungiidae, Agariciidae and Euphylliidae. A total of 56 species was recorded. The addition of three previously reported coral species brings the total to 59, consisting of 32 Fungiidae, 22 Agariciidae, and five Euphylliidae. Of these, 32 species are new records for Layang-Layang, which include five rarely reported species, i.e., the fungiids Lithophyllonranjithi, Podabaciasinai, Sandalolithaboucheti, and the agariciids Leptoseriskalayaanensis and Leptoseristroglodyta. The coral fauna of Layang-Layang is poor compared to other areas in Sabah, which may be related to its recovery from a crown-of-thorns seastar outbreak in 2010, and its low habitat diversity, which is dominated by reef slopes consisting of steep outer walls. Based on integrative molecular and morphological analyses, a Pavona variety with small and extremely thin coralla was revealed as Pavonamaldivensis. Since specimens from Sabah previously identified as Pavonamaldivensis were found to belong to Pavonaexplanulata, the affinities and distinctions of Pavonamaldivensis and Pavonaexplanulata are discussed.
拉央拉央岛是马来西亚沙巴州外南沙群岛中一个海洋环礁的小岛。由于南海这一区域的珊瑚礁动物群鲜为人知，2013年开展了一项调查，以研究石珊瑚目真菌珊瑚科、鹿角珊瑚科和蜂巢珊瑚科的物种组成。共记录了56个物种。加上之前报道的3种珊瑚物种，总数达到59种，其中真菌珊瑚科32种、鹿角珊瑚科22种、蜂巢珊瑚科5种。其中，32个物种是拉央拉央岛的新记录，包括5种罕见报道的物种，即真菌珊瑚属的兰氏叶状珊瑚、西奈豆荚珊瑚、布氏石芝珊瑚，以及鹿角珊瑚属的卡拉扬细梳珊瑚和洞穴细梳珊瑚。与沙巴州的其他地区相比，拉央拉央岛的珊瑚动物群较为稀少，这可能与其从2010年的棘冠海星爆发中恢复有关，也与其低栖息地多样性有关，该岛主要由陡峭外壁构成的礁坡主导。基于综合分子和形态分析，一种具有小而极薄珊瑚骼的扁脑珊瑚变种被鉴定为马尔代夫扁脑珊瑚。由于之前在沙巴州被鉴定为马尔代夫扁脑珊瑚的标本被发现属于展叶扁脑珊瑚，因此讨论了马尔代夫扁脑珊瑚和展叶扁脑珊瑚的亲缘关系和区别。
