A revision of the genus Wrangelia (Wrangeliaceae, Ceramiales) in Bermuda resolves six new species including W. ryancraigii from the mesophotic zone

Abstract

Four species of the genus Wrangelia are presently known from the western Atlantic Ocean: W. argus, W. bicuspidata, W. penicillata, and W. gordoniae, with the first three historically being reported from Bermuda. Morphological and molecular barcode (COI-5P) and phylogenetic analyses used in this study (SSU, LSU, rbcL) indicated eight species groupings of Wrangelia in Bermuda, excluding two of the historically recognized species, retaining only W. argus while adding seven new species, of which six are formally described. What had been historically reported as W. penicillata from Bermuda was shown to be distinct from Mediterranean Sea specimens (type locality) and was shown to be a mixture of W. hesperia sp. nov. and W. incrassata sp. nov. Along with these two, three other new species (W. laxa sp. nov., W. ryancraigii sp. nov., and W. secundiramea sp. nov.) have complete rhizoidal cortication tightly covering axial cells of indeterminate axes below the apices, distinguishing them from the two local incompletely corticated congeners W. argus and W. abscondita sp. nov., the latter a morphologically cryptic sister species with W. bicuspidata from the Caribbean Sea. Only one of the new species, W. ryancraigii, has thus far been observed in the mesophotic zone off the Bermuda platform, and it is morphologically cryptic with the euphotic zone's W. laxa.