(f?JlOIlQ.OCII"" '~~' ISSN 0375-1511 United Nations Decade on Blodlvenlty Ir( Volume 112 (Part-I) Year 2012 A Journal of Indian Zoology Zoological Survey of India CITATION Editor-Director. 2012. Rec. zoo!. Surv. India, 112(part-1) : 1-112 (Published by the Director, Zoo!. Surv. India, Kolkata) Published - December, 2012 Ganuary - March, 2012 Issue) ISSN 0375-1511 © Government of India, 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED • No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. • This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, re­ sold hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. • The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page. Any revised price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrect and should be unacceptable. PRICE India : ~ 775.00 Foreign: $ 45; £ 30 Published at the Publication Division by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700 053 and printed at Hooghly Printing Co. Ltd., (Govt. of India Enterprise) Kolkata-700 071. COMPUTERISED DATA ON NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTION The National Zoological Collections comprising nearly 15,000 types are housed in the Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta and are properly maintained. All these specimens have Registration numbers and are readily available for study as and when required. Data pertaining to locality, date of collection, name of collector, sex, up to date valid species name, name of the host (for parasite) etc., of each type of collection have already been computerised. The computerised data are stored in the computer centre of Zoological Survey of India. Scientists/Naturalists interested for any information on type species present in Zoological Survey of India may contact the Director, Zoological Survey of India, 'M' Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700 053. Dr. K. VENKATARAMAN Director Zoological Survey of India AN APPEAL In order to enrich the "National Zoological Collection" (Nzq and to up date information on the occurrence and distribution of animal species in India Scientists/Naturalists and researchers working on animal taxonomy/systematics are requested to deposit their identified specimens to the Zoological Survey of India at the following address : Officer-in-Charge, Identification and Advisory Section, Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700 053. These specimens will be registered and their data will be computerised. They are further requested to deposit their type collection positively of ZSI and use the Registration number in their publication of the new taxon. Dr. K. VENKATARAMAN Director Zoological Survey of India ISSN 0375-1511 Rec. zool. Surv. India: 112(part-1) : 1-10, 2012 STUDIES ON NEWLY RECORDED ANTIPATHARIAN CORALS FROM ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS J.S. YOGESH KUMAR, C. RAGHUNATHAN AND K. VENKATARAMAN1 Zoological Survey ofIndia, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, National Coral Reef Research Institute, Port Blair- 744102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India lZoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata - 700053, India INTRODUCTION 1907), and Maldives and Laccadive Archipelagos (Cooper, 1903; 1909). The order antipatharia is Black or Horny Corals. They are-like upright and plant-like forms. are Taxonomic information on several species of arranged around an axial skeleton of black horny antipatharians of the Indonesian Archipelago can material bearing thorns. Most forms inhabit deep be found in 2 detailed monographs (Brook, 1889, water and live in the tropics. Although black corals van Pesch, 1914). However neither of these provides are arnong the most common azooxanthellate corals a comprehensive evaluation of shallow-water in tropical reefs, they are least studied group in species. Schultze (1896) has reported about on 7 Indian waters. One of the few ecological studies species collected off the island of Ternate in the dedicated to black coral ecology is that of Grigg northern Moluccas. Hoeksema and van Ofwegen (1965) conducted in Hawaii. Other research works (2004) published descriptions and photos of some were devoted to the geographical and bathymetrical common shallow-water antipatharian species of distributions or to the population structure of black the Indo-Malayan region. Information on some corals in New Zealand (Grange, 1985, 1988; Grange species of shallow- and deep-water Indo-Pacific and Singleton, 1988), st. Paul and Amsterdam Is., antipatharians can also be found in taxonomic Southern Indian Ocean (Grasshoff, 1988), Hawaii revisions of the families Aphanipathidae, (Grigg, 1965; 1974), East Malaysia (Oakley, 1997), Myriopathidae, Oadopathidae, and Schizopathidae the US Virgin Is. (Olsen and Wood, 1979), and the published by Opresko (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004), but Caribbean Sea (Warner, 1981; Sanchez et al., 1998; a comprehensive taxonomic study of the Sanchez, 1999). A few studies have dealt with antipatharians of this region is still needed. The associated fauna (Totton, 1923; Warner, 1981; present work reports antipatharian coral Grange, 1991; Wirtz et al., 2001), reproduction and assemblages at 4 different islands of the Andaman growth (Oakley, 1988; Parker et al., 1997), feeding and Nicobar. strategies (Dantan, 1921; Lewis, 1978; Warner 1981; Pax et al., 1987), competition behavior (Goldberg, METHODOLOGY et al., 1990), and the relationship with abiotic This study was conducted by SCUBA diving in environmental features like currents (Warner, 1981; day time during July 2009 to March 2011 and the Genin, et al., 1986; Oakley, 1997). Other sparse antipatharian coral (black corals) specimens were ecological notes have been given by different collected from Long Island (Lat. 12'21.749; Long. authors dealing in taxonomic or faunistic works, 092'55.410), Pongibalu (Lat. 11°30.956; Long. in the Strait of Gibraltar (Grasshoff, 1989), Northeast 092°39.201), Kamota Island (Lat. 08°02.183; Atlantic (Grasshoff, 1985), Bay of Biscay (Hickson, Long.093°32.573) and Havelock Island (Lat. Key words: Antipatharians, Cirrhipathes, Antipathes, Stichopathes, Cupressopathes, Myriopathes, Antipathella, Plumapathes, Andaman and Nicobar islands. 2 Rec. zool. Surv. India 12°03.334; Long. 092°57.716) in Andaman and morphology of the collected samples were Nicobar Islands. examined with the help of a (Leica -DFC 500) compound microscope. Quantitative data were obtained at each dive site by using the adapted belt transect method RESULT (Bianchi et al., 2003) counting all the colonies During the survey, 8 species (Cirrhipathes observed along 5 transects with 2 m wide (including anguina, Cirrhipathes contorta, Antipathes elegans, 1 m on each side of the diver) at depths of 5 to 30 Stichopathes solorensis, Cupressopathes gracilis, m. The data obtained through the study were Myriopathes antrocrada, AntipatheUa subpinnata, analysed with on several biological indexes such Plumapathes pennacea) of antipatharian corals as species richness (SR, the total number of species belonging to 2 families and 7 genera were recorded observed), abundance (the number of individuals for the first time in Andaman and Nicobar Islands of each species), the Shannon index (H', calculated as well as in India (Table 1). Cirrhipathes anguina as H' = - pi ~log2pi, where pi is ni is the number species were very common at these four stations. of individuals of the ith-species, and N is the total Each island has reported only three species, except number of individuals), and the evenness index Havelock Island where two species Cirrhipathes indicating how the abundances are partitioned 0', anguina and Myriopathes antrocrada were reported across the species). Density measurements (Table-l). These species were identified during (colonies/ m2) were obtained by estimating a surface visual census from their gross morphologies (plate- area of about 100 m2 for each transect, which was 1- 8). calculated considering the width of the belt of observation (2 m) and the length of the transect of We took into consideration of 4 main categories about50m. for subdividing the species on the basis of their pattern of ramification such as unbranched, For taxonomic studies, portion of colonies was arborescent, bush and fan shaped. Stichopathes and sampled and directly fixed in 4 % formaldehyde. Cirrhipathes are unbranched. These two genera The various species of black corals were identified differ in the presence of one or numerous rows of on the basis of shape, thickness of the axis and the polyps. The various species of Cirrhipathes were size and arrangement of the spines, respectively identified on the basis of shape, thickness of the (Brook, 1889). Underwater photographs were made axis and the size and arrangement of the polyps with a Sony - T900 digital camera and the (Plate-9). The arborescent species Antipathes and Table-I. List of antipatharian coral species studied and reported at four study sites 51. Material Examined Family Genus Species 1 2 3 4 No. 1 ZSIj ANRC - 5607 Cirrhipathes anguina * * * * 2 ZSIj ANRC - 5608 Cirrhipathes Cirrhipathes contorta - * - - 3 ZSI/ ANRC - 5613 Antipathes Antipathes elegans -- * - 4 ZSIj ANRC - 5609 Antipathidae Stichopathes Stichopathes solorensis -- * - 5 ZSIj ANRC - 5606 Cupressopathes Cupressopathes gracilis - * -- 6 ZSIj ANRC - 5610 Myriopathes Myriopathes