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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.34, 1-9
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
2
intertidal zone on various macro faunal communities
associated with
P. mutuki
along four different
locations situated on Saurashtra coast, Gujarat, India.
Figure 1 Associated macrobenthic community of
P.mutuki
. a.
P.
mutuki
colony with individual open polyps; b.
Atergatis floridus
in
P.
mutuki
colony; c.
Nereis
sp. in
P. mutuki
colony; d.
Turbo
intercoastalis
in
P.mutuki
colony
1 Results
A total of 67 different macro faunal species belonging
to 56 genera, 41 families, 12 classes and 6 different
phyla were found to be associated with
Palythoa
mutuki
. Amongst the six phyla associated with
P.
mutuki,
the Phylum Arthropoda (30 species) was
dominant in terms of species richness followed by the
Phyla Mollusca (26 species), Cnidaria (3 species),
Anellida (3 species), Porifera (3 species), and
Echinodermata (2 species) (Table 1). Amongst all the
studied sites, the maximum diversity of the macro
faunal associates of
P. mutuki
was recorded from the
site of Sutrapada followed by Kodinar, Dhamlej and
Veraval (Figure 1).
At Veraval, a total of 31 species were reported
associated with
P. mutuki
(Figure 2). In Phylum
Annelida only one species (
Eulalia
sp
.
) belonging to
family Phyllodocidae, class Polycheta was reported
(Table 1). Species belonging to phylum Echinodermata
was not observed associated with
P. mutuki
at Veraval.
Out of three families, three species and two classes
reported under phylum Porifera, two families
(Microcionidae, Tethyidae) and two species
(
Microceiona
sp
.
,
Tethya
sp.) belonged to class
Demospongiae while one family (Oscarellidae) and
one species (
Oscarella
sp
.
) belonged to class
Homoscleromorpha (Table 1). Only one species
Paracondylactis sinensis
Carlgren, 1934 belonging to
family Actiniidae, Class Anthozoa was reported under
phylum Cnidaria associated with
P. mutuki
(Table 1)
.
Total 15 species belonging to 13 genera, 8 families
Table 1 Systematic checklist and abundance (number of individual m
-2
) for the four considered localities (VL- Vearaval, SU- Sutrapada,
DH- Dhamlej, KO- Kodinar) of macro faunal taxa associated to
Palythoa mutuki
(“√” denotes presence of the species)
Class
Family
Species
VL
SU
DH
KO
Phylum Annelida
Polycheta
Nereididae
Nereis
sp.
0
√
0
√
Phyllodocidae
Eulalia
sp.
√
√
0
√
Sabellidae
Sabella
sp.
0
√
√
√
Phylum Porifera
Demospongiae
Microcionidae
Microceiona
sp.
√
√
0
√
Tethyidae
Tethya
sp.
√
0
0
√
Homoscleromorpha
Oscarellidae
Oscarella
sp.
√
0
√
√
Phylum Echinodermata
Ophiuroidea
Ophiodermatidae
Ophioderma brevispina
0
√
0
√
Echinoidea
Echinidae
Echinus sp.
0
0
0
√
Phylum Cnidaraia
Anthozoa
Poritidae
Porites lutea
0
√
√
0
Porites compressa
0
√
√
0
Actiniidae
Paracondylactis sinensis
√
√
√
√
Phylum Mollusca
Cephalopoda
Octopodidae
Octopus vulgaris
0
√
0
√
Polyplacophora
Chitonidae
Chiton chiton
0
4
0
6