The red algal genusScinaia(Nemaliales; Rhodophyta) on the Gulf of California, Mexico: a taxonomic account

A re-evaluation of Scinaia (Nemaliales, Rhodophyta) in the Azores

“…The former was Wrstly described for England and later referred to many other locations, being widely distributed around the world (Guiry and Guiry 2009). The latter, described for France and for long only known for the Atlantic (Guiry and Guiry 2009), was recently reported to occur in the Gulf of California (León-Cisneros et al 2009) and is likely to have a wider distribution. Scinaia acuta was originally described for Australia (Setchell 1914), later for the Canaries (Reyes et al 1993) and now for the Azores, a distribution pattern that suggests its introduction to these Macaronesian archipelagos.…”

“…No members of the "S. complanata group" and "S. moniliformis group" were found in the Azores. The limits between these morphological groups are, however, unclear (see León-Cisneros et al 2009). Moreover, as previously discussed by the latter authors, the three species in the Azores show the same reproductive pattern where the hypogynous cells produce two lateral sterile branches (one celled, two celled), a feature that according to Kajimura (1995) should place them into one single group.…”

“…Illustration of the specimens' habit was obtained using a HewlettPackard high-resolution scanner. The taxonomic characters commonly used for Scinaia species identiWcation (see Vroom and Abbott 2004;León-Cisneros et al 2009) were evaluated for the studied material and the more stable and persistent ones were selected for Azorean species segregation, namely, shape and arrangement of utricles in surface view; shape of utricles in transversal view; spermatangium organization; rhizoidal Wlaments on the cystocarp; and structure of the fusion cell. A dichotomous key to the species from the Azores archipelago was constructed.…”

“…It has been investigated in NW Europe (Maggs and Guiry 1982), Australia (Huisman 1986(Huisman , 2006Millar 1990;Huisman and Womersley 1994), Japan (Kajimura 1988(Kajimura , 1991(Kajimura , 1995, Korea (Lee and Ko 2006) and the Gulf of California (León-Cisneros et al 2009). These authors described the morphological, anatomical and reproductive features used for species diagnosis.…”