Knopia octocontacanalis
| Knopia octocontacanalis | ||||||||||||
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Knopia octocontacanalis |
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Knopia | ||||||||||||
| Alderslade , 2007 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Knopia octocontacanalis | ||||||||||||
| Alderslade, 2007 |
Knopia is a genus of the tube corals (suborder Stolonifera ) from the family Clavulariidae . The only species of the genus so far, Knopia octocontacanalis , lives in the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific , but the first description of another species is in progress. The holotype of K. octocontacanalis comes from a reef off Sabah , Malaysia . Other specimens were collected in reefs in Indonesia .
features
Tube corals of the family Clavulariidae (subclass Octocorallia ) develop polyps that grow out of a tubular network of stolons. Inside are the solenia, a network-like mesh of tissue through which the individual polyps communicate with one another.
The scientifically newly described coral Knopia octocontacanalis belongs to the family Clavulariidae, but differs in one essential characteristic from almost all other corals of the subclass Octocorallia. Octocorallia are eight-rayed, so have eight body segments, each of which forms a terminal tentacle . Each Octocorallia tentacle has short appendages (feathers) on both sides, which make it look like a feather. The function of these appendages is species-dependent (e.g. surface enlargement in some zooxanthellate species, foraging in some azooxanthellate species), but these lateral appendages are usually solitary and not grown together. Only in very few exceptions do Octocorallia species form fused feathers on the tentacles. One of these exceptions can be found in the genus Tubipora ( organ corals ), and another in the recently scientifically described Knopia octocontacanalis , whose feathers are so fused on both sides that the tentacles act like a small paddle.
Like all Clavulariidae genera, the genus Knopia also lives in an endosymbiosis with unicellular symbiotic algae ( zooxanthellae ) . It was created by the Australian soft coral taxonomist Dr. Philip Alderslade was set up in 2007 and is monotypical , so it contains only one species. Knopia octocontacanalis can be kept well in saltwater aquariums and is also occasionally available from specialist aquarists. It was named after the German specialist journalist Daniel Knop .
literature
- Alderslade, P. & C. McFadden (2007): Pinnule-less polyps: a new genus and new species of Indo-Pacific Clavulariidae and validation of the soft coral genus Acrossota and the family Acrossotidae (Coelenterata: Octocorallia). - Zootaxa 1400: 27-44.
PDF - D. Knop, H. Erhardt: Korallenführer Indopazifik . Kosmos-Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-440-10293-0 .
