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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Audouinella spongicola (Weber-van Bosse) Stegenga 1985: 314, fig. 18.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Class Florideophyceae – Order Acrochaetiales – Family Acrochaetiaceae

Selected citations: Garbary 1987: 176.

Synonyms

Acrochaetium spongicolum Weber-van Bosse 1921: 195, figs 56,57.

Colaconema spongiocolum (Weber-van Bosse) Woelkerling 1971: 41, fig. 14A–F.

Acrochaetium spiculiphilum Dawson 1953: 22, pl. 10 figs 2–4. Boney & White 1967: 223, fig. 1.

Colaconema spiculiphilum (Dawson) Woelkerling 1971: 40, fig. 14G–L.

Thallus (Fig. 13M–P) endozoic, forming a network in the sponge skeletons; sporelings unknown. Prostrate system consisting of irregularly branched, creeping filaments which remain discrete or become confluent and almost pseudoparenchymatous. Cells (Fig. 13M–P) either more or less cylindrical, 3–9 µm in diameter and 20–135 µm long (L/D 3–20) or irregularly shaped and more or less isodiametric, 6–14 µm in diameter and 6–14 µm long, each cell containing a parietal rhodoplast (Fig. 13Q) which sometimes becomes dissected into several portions; pyrenoids unknown. Erect system usually virtually absent, consisting of an occasional cell arising from the prostrate system and just reaching the surface of the host, occasionally of 2–7-celled filaments, cells ovoid, 4–6 µm in diameter.

Reproduction: Reproduction unknown in southern Australia [monosporangia sessile or terminal on a 1–2-celled stalk, about 9 µm by 7 µm - Stegenga 1985, p. 314, fig. 18(3)].

Type from the Am Is, Indonesia; holotype in L.

Selected specimens: (all on sponges in drift): Hamelin Bay, W. Aust. (Woelkerling, 16.xi.1968; AD, A34360). Elliston, S. Aust. (Woelkerling, 2.xi.1968; AD, A32857, A32858). Daly Head, Yorke Pen., S. Aust. (Woelkerling, 22.iv.1969; AD, A34162). Port Elliot, S. Aust. (Woelkerling, 15.i.1968; AD, A32125 - A32127 and 8.v.1968; AD, A32288 - A32290).


Distribution map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of SA

Distribution: Am Is, Indonesia; South Africa.

In southern Australia, from Hamelin Bay, W. Aust., to Port Elliot, S. Aust., on sponges; probably more widespread.

Taxonomic notes: Southern Australian plants of Audouinella spongicola agree well with the original diagnosis of Weber-van Bosse (1921). Anastomoses occur occasionally and secondary pit-connections develop. As Stegenga (1985, p. 317) found, there are no reliable criteria for separation of A. spongicola and A. spiculiphila, and A. epispiculum Joly & Cordeiro (1963, p. 135, pl. 1) is doubtfully distinct.

References:

BONEY, A.D. & WHITE, E.B. (1967). Observations on an endozoic red alga. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 47, 223–232.

DAWSON, E.Y. (1953). Marine red algae of Pacific Mexico. Part I. Bangiales to Corallinaceae subf. Corallinoideae. Allan Hancock Pacif. Exped. 17, 1–239.

GARBARY, D.J. (1987). The Acrochaetiaceae (Rhodophyta): An annotated bibliography. Bibl. Phycol. 77, 1–267.

JOLY, A.B. & CORDEIRO, M. (1963). Two new species of Acrochaetium from southern Brazil. Bol. Fac. Fil. Cienc. Letr. U.S.P. Bot. 19, 133–146.

STEGENGA, H. (1985). The marine Acrochaetiaceae (Rhodophyta) of southern Africa. S. Afr. J. Bot. 51, 291–330.

WEBER-VAN BOSSE, A. (1921). Liste des Algues du Siboga. II. Rhodophyceae. Part I. Protoflorideae, Némalionales, Cryptonemiales. Siboga-Expeditae, Monogr. Lab, pp. 187–310, Plates 6–8.

WOELKERLING, W.J. (1971). Morphology and taxonomy of the Audouinella complex (Rhodophyta) in southern Australia. Aust. J. Bot. Suppl. 1, 1–91.

The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIA complete list of references.

Author: W.J. Woelkerling & H.B.S. Womersley

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (14 January, 1994)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIA, Bangiophyceae and Florideophyceae (to Gigartinales)
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIA 1994, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.


Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 1994: FIG. 13 M–Q.

Figure 13 image

Figure 13   enlarge

Fig. 13. A–D. Audouinella nakamurae (AD, A19847). A. Young thallus with a terminal hair. B–D. Mature thalli with monosporangia. E–G. Audouinella macula (AD, A31372). Mature thalli with monosporangia. H–L. Audouinella humilis (AD, A32114). H, I. Thalli with erect branches and monosporangia. J. Prostrate system (from below) with erect branches. K, L. Cells each with a rhodoplast and pyrenoid. M–Q. Audouinella spongicola (M, AD, A32125; N, P, Q, AD, A32127; 0, AD, A32126). M–P. Variation in cell length in the prostrate system. Q. Cells with rhodoplasts. [A-0 after Woelkerling 1971.]


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