Diversity and complexity in New Zealand Kallymeniaceae (Rhodophyta): recognition of the genus Ectophora and description of E. marginata sp. nov.

Over the past 2 decades algal explorations throughout the New Zealand region have resulted in the collection of many specimens that cannot be placed in currently recognised taxa, resulting in significant underrepresentation of diversity in published accounts of the flora. In the present study we use a combination of molecular analyses and morphological observations to survey diversity in the Kallymeniaceae, a family that is particularly well represented in New Zealand. Our analyses reveal unexpected species richness and highlight significant taxonomic issues in both the regional and general taxonomy of this group. The genus Ectophora is maintained, rather than regarded as a synonym of Callophyllis, and includes the type species Ectophora depressa and the newly described species Ectophora marginata sp. nov. Another species originally placed in Ectophora, Ectophora dichotoma is found to belong to a separate clade and properly placed in the Callophyllis assemblage as Callophyllis laingiana. The New Zealand-endemic species Pugetia delicatissima is not allied with the type species of Pugetia, Pugetia fragilissima, nor with Pugetia firma and Pugetia chilensis, which group with the type species. A further anomaly concerns the species previously regarded as equivalent to the type species of the genus Callophyllis (Callophyllis variegata) as it reputedly occurs in New Zealand but is not related to that species from the holotype region in Chile. The Kallymeniaceae has a global distribution, and resolution of the phylogenetic relationships among the genera will require consideration of taxa from a wider context than the New Zealand region alone, as well as examination of the type species of both Pugetia and Callophyllis to establish reliable generic concepts.