New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Ostreobium quekettii (Ostreobiaceae: Chlorophyceae) invading the
barnacle Acasta sp. (Pendunculata: Acastinae), endozoic in the octocoral
Rumphella suffruticosa (Alcyonacea: Gorgoniidae) from Fiji, South
Pacific
K.-D. Feussner1
P. A. Skelton2
G. R. South2
P. Alderslade3
W. Aalbersberg1
1Institute of Applied Sciences
P.O. Box 1168
University of the South Pacific
Suva, Fiji
email: Feussner_K@usp.ac.fj
2International Ocean Institute-Regional Centre
for Australia and the Western Pacific
P.O. Box 1539, Townsville
Q 4810, Australia
3Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
G.P.O. Box 4646, Darwin
NT 0801, Australia
Abstract The eukaryotic alga Ostreobium quekettii
(Ostreobiaceae: Chlorophyceae) is reported from Fiji for the first time.
It is found creeping over the calcareous plates of dead specimens of species
of a barnacle genus Acasta (Pendunculata: Acastinae), which was endozoic
in the gorgonian Rumphella suffruticosa. The barnacles are lodged
in cavities in the coenenchyme of the gorgonian, mostly in the vicinity of
colonial branching points. There is little external evidence of the location
of the barnacles where the gorgonian tissue is thick, but where it is thin,
prominent galls are visible. There is no evidence that the barnacle or algal
association causes stress to the host, which was otherwise healthy in appearance.
The presence of the algae would appear to be associated with the occurrence
of the barnacles.
Keywords symbiosis; Ostreobium quekettii; filamentous
alga; Fiji; South Pacific; endozoic; algal tumour; Acasta; barnacle;
Gorgoniidae; octocoral; Rumphella suffruticosa; algal association
M03032; Online publication date 15 March 2004; Received 30 June 2003;
accepted 3 October 2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2004, Vol. 38:
87-90
0028-8330/04/3801-0087 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2004
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