Range extensions of Japanese Scleractinia to the Philippines

Veron (1990) described 24 new species from Japan and other countries in the "PhilippinesJapan island chain" including Goniopora cellulosa Veron 1990, Hydnophora bonsai Veron 1990, and Goniastrea deformis Veron 1990. These three species has thus far been reported only from Japan (Veron 1998 Veron and Fenner 2000 Fenner 2001 Fenner 2002) except for G. deformis in the Red Sea (Veron 2000) and a visual record of it from the Philippines (Veron and Fenner 2000), and H. bonsai in Raja Ampat Islands, Papua Province, Indonesia (Veron 2002). In this paper, we describe specimens of these three species collected from western Luzon and along the Kuroshio current on the eastern coast of the Philippines (Fig. 1) thereby extending their ranges farther south and west. This also increases the number of species reported from the Philippines to 464 from the 462 species reported by Veron and Fenner (2000). The Philippines now has 18 species of Goniopora, six species of Hydnophora and nine species of Goniastrea as compared to other nearby countries (e.g. Togean and Banggai Islands, Indonesia with four species of Goniopora, five species of Hydnophora, and four Goniastrea species; Raja Ampat Islands, Papua Province, Indonesia with 17 species of Goniopora, six species of Hydnophora and seven Goniastrea species Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea with 11 species of Goniopora, five species of Hydnophora and seven Goniastrea species). Ninety-three percent of the Japanese coral fauna (as inferred from Veron 1992) is shared with the Philippines (based on Veron and Fenner 2000) further emphasizing the likely role of the Kuroshio current in Japanese coral diversity. Specimens described here are deposited at the Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines. All specimens were collected by WY Licuanan.