Two species of the coral Tubastraea (Cnidaria, Scleractinia) in Brazil: A case of accidental introduction

Although scleractinian corals have been described for the Brazilian coast and despite the fact that the genus Tubastraea Lesson 1829 (Scleractinia: Dendrophylliidae) is a very common ahermatypic azooxanthellate coral with a wide geographical distribution in the world, it has not, until recently, been reported from Brazil. Therefore, this coral is interpreted as a non-indigenous genus to the south Atlantic, probably arriving in Brazil in the late 1980s. The present study re-describes and compares two species of the genus, Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829 and Tubastraea tagusensis Wells, 1982 from the rocky shores of Ilha Grande Bay, Angra dos Reis, Brazil. These corals are found on protected, shallow-water rocky shores. Of the six species of genus Tubastraea that are known, T. coccinea is the most common species in tropical regions, while T. tagusensis was previously known only from the Galápagos archipelago. Ilha Grande Bay is a site with shipping traffic (ships and oil platforms), which probably brought these corals to the region. Results of this study expand the reported distribution of this genus in the world.