Hydroid diversity of Eilat Bay with the description of a newZancleaspecies

Polyphyly of the genus Zanclea and family Zancleidae (Hydrozoa, Capitata) revealed by the integrative analysis of two bryozoan-associated species

“…2 are monomorphic, but have a distinctive feature, which is the hydrorhiza projecting out of the bryozoan skeleton. This characteristic is found in a few other zancleids, namely Zanclella diabolica, Zanclea divergens, and Zanclea eilatensis Pica, Bastari & Puce, 2017. Another species, Zanclea exposita Puce, Cerrano, Boyer, Ferretti & Bavestrello, 2002, exhibits a perisarc-free hydrorhiza not surrounded by the bryozoan and running above the skeleton of the host (Puce et al, 2002).…”

“…As anticipated by Boero et al (2000), the family Zancleidae is constantly being enlarged as a result of the descriptions of new species and cryptic taxa Pica et al, 2017). Indeed, the integration of in-depth morphological and molecular assessments is helping re-evaluate the diversity of both Zancleidae and closely related families, taking their geographical distributions and host relationships into account if relevant (Montano et al, 2015a(Montano et al, , 2015b(Montano et al, , 2015cMaggioni et al, 2016Maggioni et al, , 2017aMaggioni et al, , 2017bTakama et al, 2018).…”

“…Tables including all available diagnostic characters for polyp and medusa stages of all the nominal zancleid species and the two species herein analysed (Supplementary tables S1, S2) were compiled by retrieving data from all the relevant literature (Agassiz, 1862;Haeckel, 1879;Browne, 1916;Hastings, 1930;Kramp, 1959;Uchida and Sugiura, 1976;Calder, 1988;Hirohito, 1988;Xu et al, 1991Xu et al, , 2008Boero and Hewitt, 1992;Piraino et al, 1992;Gravili et al, 1996;Migotto, 1996;Cerrano et al, 1997;Schuchert, 1996Schuchert, , 2010Boero et al, 2000;Puce et al, 2002Puce et al, , 2008Gershwin and Zeidler, 2003;Galea, 2008;Pantos and Bythell, 2010;Hirose and Hirose, 2011;Varela, 2012;Altuna, 2013Altuna, , 2016Peña Cantero et al, 2013;Montano et al, 2015a;Pica et al, 2017).…”

“…The majority of zancleid species live in strict association with other organisms, and the relationships with their hosts span from a presumable mutualism (Osman and Haugsness, 1981;Ristedt and Schuhmacher, 1985;Montano et al, 2017a) to parasitism (Piraino et al, 1992). Among the 30 species with a described benthic polyp stage, 16 are specifically associated with bryozoans Pica et al, 2017), four with scleractinians Pantos and Bythell, 2010;Hirose and Hirose, 2011;Montano et al, 2015a), two with octocorals (Puce et al, 2008;Varela, 2012), two with bivalves , two with algae Galea, 2008), while four other show no substrate specificity (Agassiz, 1862;Schuchert, 2010;Peña Cantero et al, 2013). In particular, Halocoryne and Zanclella species live symbiotically with bryozoans and are thought to have derived from Zanclea species associated with bryozoans and with a perisarc-free hydrorhiza protected by the skeleton of the host (Puce et al, 2002).…”

Corals hosting symbiotic hydrozoans are less susceptible to predation and disease

“…Already known to form symbiotic relationships with many marine taxa [14,15], hydrozoans have also been reported as associates of scleractinian corals with increasing frequency [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. To date, four polymorphic hydrozoans species, all belonging to the genus Zanclea Gegenbaur, 1857, have been recorded on more than 40 scleractinian species (belonging to 26 genera and eight families) from several Indo-Pacific areas, including Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, the Maldives, the Red Sea, and the Caribbean [16][17][18][19][20][24][25][26].…”