Abstract
Lebrunia coralligens is among the most common sea anemone species found inhabiting in coral reefs environments along the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. This species exhibit two distinct morphotypes characterized mainly by differences in the location of vesicles on its pseudotentacles. The morphology and cnidae size ranges between representatives of the two morphotypes, as well as with those from specimens of its congeners Lebrunia neglecta, were compared to identify taxonomic distinctions that would enable separation of the morphotypes into different species. Statistical variability in specimens and cnidae size ranges was found between the two morphotypes, but a greater variability was found when compared with cnidae size ranges of L. neglecta. These results suggest that pseudotentacular form and cnidae size differences are due to broad phenotypic plasticity within L. coralligens. In addition, results also suggest that quantitative comparisons of cnidae could reinforce the taxonomic distinction of closely related species as L. coralligens and L. neglecta.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acuña FH, Garese A (2009) The cnidae of the acrospheres of the corallimorpharian Corynactis carnea (Studer, 1878) (Cnidaria, Corallimorpharia, Corallimorphidae): composition, abundance and biometry. Belgian. J Zool 139:50–57
Acuña FH, Excoffon AC, Zamponi MO, Ricci L (2003) Importance of nematocysts in taxonomy of Acontiarian Sea Anemones (Cnidaria, Actiniaria): a statistical comparative study. Zool Anz 242:75–81. doi:10.1078/0044-5231-00088
Acuña FH, Ricci L, Excoffon AC, Zamponi MO (2004) A novel statistical analysis of cnidocysts in acontiarian sea anemones (Cnidaria, Actiniaria) using generalized linear models with gamma errors. Zool Anz 243:47–52. doi:10.1016/j.jcz.2004.06.002
Addamo AM, Martínez-Baraldés I, Vertino A, López-González PJ, Taviani M, Machordom A (2015) Morphological polymorphism of Desmophyllum dianthus (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) over a wide ecological and biogeographic range: stability in deep habitats? Zool Anz 259:113–130. doi:10.1016/j.jcz.2015.10.004
Allcock AL, Watts PC, Thorpe JP (1998) Divergence of nematocysts in two colour morphs of the intertidal beadlet anemone Actinia equina. J Mar Biol Assoc United Kingdom 78:821–828 doi:10.1017/S0025315400044805
Anderson MJ (2001) A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecol 26:32–46. doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.2001.01070.pp.x
Carlgren O (1949) A survey of the Ptychodactiaria, Corallimorpharia and Actiniaria. K Sven Vetenskapsakademiens Handl 1:1–121
Crowther A (2013) Character evolution in light of phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of the zooxanthellate sea anemone families Thalassianthidae and Aliciidae. Dissertation, University of Kansas
Daly M, Gusmão LC, Reft AJ, Rodríguez E (2010) Phylogenetic signal in mitochondrial and nuclear markers in sea anemones (Cnidaria, Actiniaria). Integr Compar Biol 50(3):371–388. doi:10.1093/icb/icq081
Duchassaing de Fonbressin P, Michelotti G (1860) Mémoire sur les Coralliaires des Antilles. Imprimerie Royale, Turin
Duerden JE (1895) On the genus “Alicia (Cladactis)”, with an anatomical description of “A. costae”, Panc. Ann Mag Nat History 15(87):218–218
Estrada-Flores E, Peralta L, Rivas P (1982) Manual de Técnicas Histológicas. AGT-México, Distrito Federal
Fautin DG (1988) Importance of nematocysts to actinian taxonomy. In: Hessinger DA, Lenhoff HM (eds) The biology of nematocysts. Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, pp 487–500
Fautin DG (2009) Structural diversity, systematics, and evolution of cnidae. Toxicon 54(8):1054–1064. doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2009.02.024
Fautin DG (2013) Hexacorallians of the world http://geoportal.kgs.ku.edu/hexacoral/anemone2/index.cfm. Accessed 26 Dec 2016
Garese A, Carrizo S, Acuña FH (2016) Biometry of sea anemone and corallimorpharian cnidae: statistical distribution and suitable tools for analysis. Zoomorphology. doi:10.1007/s00435-016-0319-6
González-Muñoz R, Simões N, Sanchez-Rodríguez J, Rodríguez E, Segura-Puertas L (2012) First inventory of sea anemones (Cnidaria: Actiniaria) of the Mexican Caribbean. Zootaxa 3556:1–38
González-Muñoz R, Simões N, Tello-Musi JL, Rodríguez E (2013) Sea anemones (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Actiniaria) from coral reefs in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Zookeys 106:77–106. doi:10.3897/zookeys.341.5816
González-Muñoz R, Simões N, Mascaró M, Tello-Musi JL, Brugler MR, Rodríguez E (2015) Morphological and molecular variability of the sea anemone Phymanthus crucifer (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Actiniaria, Actinoidea). J Mar Biol Assoc United Kingdom 95:69–79. doi:10.1017/S0025315414000988
González-Muñoz R, Simões N, Guerra-Castro E, Hernández-Ortíz C, Carrasquel G, Mendez E, Lira C, Rada M, Hernández I, Pauls SM, Croquer A, Cruz-Motta JJ (2016) Sea anemones (Cnidaria: Actiniaria, Corallimorpharia, Ceriantharia, Zoanthidea) from marine shallow-water environments in Venezuela: new records and an updated inventory. Marine Biodiversity Records 9:18. doi:10.1186/s41200-016-0016-7
Hellberg ME (2006) No variation and low synonymous substitution rates in coral mtDNA despite high nuclear variation. BMC Evol Biol 6:24. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-6-24
Klunzinger CB (1877) Die Korallthiere des Rothen Meeres. 1: Die Alcyonarien und Malacodermen. Gutmann’schen Buchhandlung, Berlin
Kwietniewski CR (1897) Ein Beitrag zur Anatomie und Systematik der Actiniarien. Universitaet Jena, Jena
Manchenko GP, Dautova TN, Latypov YY (2000) High level of genetic divergence between sympatric color morphs of the littoral sea anemone Anthopleura orientalis (Anthozoa: Actiniaria). Biochem Syst Ecol 28:737–750. doi:10.1016/S0305-1978(99)00120-9
Martínez-Baraldés I, López-González PJ, Megina C (2014) Application of cnidae composition in phylogenetic analyses of North Atlantic and Mediterranean dendrophylliid corals (Anthozoa: Scleractinia). Invertebr Syst 28:214–230. doi:10.1071/IS13036
McArdle BH, Anderson MJ (2001) Fitting multivariate models to community data: a comment on distance-based redundancy analysis. Ecology 82:290–297. doi:10.2307/2680104
Östman C (2000) A guideline to nematocyst nomenclature and classification, and some notes on the systematic value of nematocysts. Scietia Marina 64(1):31–46. doi:10.3989/scimar.2000.64s131
R Development Core Team (2008) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Found Stat Comput Vienna, Austria. http://www.r-project.org. Accessed 26 Dec 2016
Watts PC, Thorpe JP (1998) Phenotypic identification of three genetically differentiated morphs of the intertidal beadlet anemone Actinia equina (Anthozoa: Cnidaria). J Mar Biol Assoc United Kingdom 78:1365–1368. doi:10.1017/S0025315400044556
Watts PC, Allcock AL, Lynch SM, Thorpe JP (2000) An analysis of the nematocysts of the beadlet anemone Actinia equina and the green sea anemone Actinia prasina. J Mar Biol Assoc United Kingdom 80:719–724. doi:10.1017/S002531540000254X
Williams RB (1996) Measurements of cnidae from sea anemones (Cnidaria: Actiniaria): statistical parameters and taxonomic relevance. Sci Mar 60:339–351
Williams RB (1998) Measurements of cnidae from sea anemones (Cnidaria: Actiniaria), II: further studies of differences amongst sample means and their taxonomic relevance. Sci Mar 62:361–372
Williams RB (2000) Measurements of cnidae from sea anemones (Cnidaria†¯: Actiniaria), III: ranges and other measures of statistical dispersion, their interrelations and taxonomic relevance. Sci Mar 64:49–68
Wilson H V (1890) On a new actinia, Hoplophoria coralligens. Stud Biol Lab Johns Hopkins Univ 4:379–387
Acknowledgements
The first author is grateful to the Programa de Becas Postdoctorales of the Comisión Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT, Grant 232318). All specimens were collected under consent of Mexican law, collecting permit approved by Comisión Nacional de Acuacultura y Pesca (Number 07332.250810.4060). We thank the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) and the staff at the Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Puerto Morelos and the Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano for their helpful assistance during field work. Dr. Horacio Pérez-España (Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Pesquerías de la Universidad Veracruzana), and Dr. Nuno Simões Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Sisal (UNAM-Sisal) provided support for field work; M.S. Maribel Badillo-Alemán (UNAM-Sisal) provided access and support to histological facilities; M.S. Gemma Martínez-Moreno and Dr. Patricia Guadarrama-Chávez (UNAM-Sisal) helped with lab work and provided support in the microscopy lab; M.S. Alfredo Gallardo-Torres (UNAM-Sisal), B.S. Alejandro Córdova (UNAM-FES-I) helped in the field; and Carlos Hernández (Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela) for its valuable comments. Comments of two anonymous referees improved this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
González-Muñoz, R., Garese, A., Tello-Musi, J.L. et al. Morphological variability of the “Caribbean hidden anemone” Lebrunia coralligens (Wilson, 1890). Zoomorphology 136, 287–297 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-017-0352-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-017-0352-0