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Coral of the Xeniidae family, especially species with pumping movements are always very popular corals, despite their tendency to strong growth and overgrowth.
Xenia kuekenthali stands out due to its rhythmic contraction and diastole phases (pulsation)!
The first description of Xenia kuekenthali from Sabang, Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines contained no indication of pulsation of the species, Dr. Reinecke confirmed in his work “Xeniidae (Coelenterata: Octocorallia) of the Red Sea, with descriptions of six new species of Xenia” that a Xenia kuekenthali colony from the Gulf of Aqaba had pulsating tentacles and was nut-brown.
However, it was noted that this colony could also be a young colony of Xenia hicksoni, which was present in the area!
Color: light yellow
Information on the distribution depth in meters is not recorded in the current literature, therefore the water temperature cannot be determined exactly.
Etymology:
The species name “kuekenthali” honors the German zoologist and explorer Prof. Dr. Kükenthal (* 4 August 1861 † 22 August 1922 ), who made a significant contribution to the description of marine species.
Literature reference:
Koido T, Imahara Y, Fukami H (2019) High species diversity of the soft coral family Xeniidae (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) in the temperate region of Japan revealed by morphological and molecular analyses. ZooKeys 862: 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.862.31979
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Xenia kuekenthali stands out due to its rhythmic contraction and diastole phases (pulsation)!
The first description of Xenia kuekenthali from Sabang, Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines contained no indication of pulsation of the species, Dr. Reinecke confirmed in his work “Xeniidae (Coelenterata: Octocorallia) of the Red Sea, with descriptions of six new species of Xenia” that a Xenia kuekenthali colony from the Gulf of Aqaba had pulsating tentacles and was nut-brown.
However, it was noted that this colony could also be a young colony of Xenia hicksoni, which was present in the area!
Color: light yellow
Information on the distribution depth in meters is not recorded in the current literature, therefore the water temperature cannot be determined exactly.
Etymology:
The species name “kuekenthali” honors the German zoologist and explorer Prof. Dr. Kükenthal (* 4 August 1861 † 22 August 1922 ), who made a significant contribution to the description of marine species.
Literature reference:
Koido T, Imahara Y, Fukami H (2019) High species diversity of the soft coral family Xeniidae (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) in the temperate region of Japan revealed by morphological and molecular analyses. ZooKeys 862: 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.862.31979
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
