A revision of the genus Cryptonemia (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta) in Bermuda, western Atlantic Ocean, including five new species and C. bermudensis (Collins & M. Howe) comb. nov.

Abstract

Cryptonemia specimens collected in Bermuda over the past two decades were analysed using gene sequences encoding the large subunit of the nuclear ribosomal DNA and the large subunit of RuBisCO as genetic markers to elucidate their phylogenetic positions. They were additionally subjected to morphological assessment and compared with historical collections from the islands. Six species are presently found in the flora including C. bermudensis comb. nov., based on Halymenia bermudensis, and the following five new species: C. abyssalis, C. antricola, C. atrocostalis, C. lacunicola and C. perparva. Of the eight species known in the western Atlantic flora prior to this study, none is found in Bermuda. Specimens reported in the islands in the 1900s attributed to C. crenulata and C. luxurians are representative of the new species, C. antricola and C. atrocostalis, respectively.

The pseudodichotomous Dasya sylviae sp. nov. (Delesseriaceae, Ceramiales) from 60–90 m mesophotic reefs off Bermuda

“…Since joining the 2016 Nekton XL Catlin cruise of the R / V Baseline Explorer, the mesophotic collections of macroalgae taken off the coast of Bermuda have yielded a growing list of species new to science (Richards et al 2018;Schneider et al 2018Schneider et al , 2019aSchneider et al , 2019bSchneider et al , 2020. In the present paper, we report another new species, this a member of the genus Dasya C.Agardh that was abundantly collected at several offshore reef sites from depths of 60-90 m (Stefanoudis et al 2018: fig.…”

Gnathia bermudensis (Crustacea, Isopoda, Gnathiidae), a new species from the mesophotic reefs of Bermuda, with a key to Gnathia from the Greater Caribbean biogeographic region

“…It is situated on the western side of the Sargasso Sea (high salinity, high temperatures and high biodiversity), and has the most northern coral reef system in the world. As part of the Nekton Foundation/XL-Catlin Deep-Ocean Survey – Mission 1 (www.nektonmission.org), fish (Stefanoudis et al 2019a), zooplankton (Stefanoudis et al 2019b), black corals (Wagner and Shuler 2017), macroalgae (Schneider et al 2018, 2019) and other benthic communities (NVS pers. obs.)…”

Collections from the mesophytic zone off Bermuda reveal three species of Kallymeniaceae (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) in genera with transoceanic distributions

“…, Schneider et al. ). They were collected in areas of descending, low relief hermatyptic coral reefs or rhodolith covered areas from 60 to 178 m depths by technical divers or mechanical arms from two‐man submersibles.…”