Five new coexisting species of copepod crustaceans of the genus (Poecilostomatoida: Rhynchomolgidae), symbionts of the stony coral (Scleractinia).

is a symbiotic genus of copepods of the poecilostomatoid family Rhynchomolgidae and is known to be associated with shallow-water reef-building hermatypic corals. Three species of this genus were previously found only in washings of and in northern Madagascar. Four coral morphotypes of (Pocilloporidae) were collected by SCUBA at 1 to 28 m depth in five sites in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea in 2013.

Microbiomes of gall-inducing copepod crustaceans from the corals Stylophora pistillata (Scleractinia) and Gorgonia ventalina (Alcyonacea).

Corals harbor complex and diverse microbial communities that strongly impact host fitness and resistance to diseases, but these microbes themselves can be influenced by stresses, like those caused by the presence of macroscopic symbionts. In addition to directly influencing the host, symbionts may transmit pathogenic microbial communities. We analyzed two coral gall-forming copepod systems by using 16S rRNA gene metagenomic sequencing: (1) the sea fan Gorgonia ventalina with copepods of the genus Sphaerippe from the Caribbean and (2) the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata with copepods of the genus Spaniomolgus from the Saudi Arabian part of the Red Sea.

Lack of host specificity of copepod crustaceans associated with mushroom corals in the Red Sea.

The radiation of symbiotic copepods (Crustacea: Copepoda) living in association with stony corals (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) is considered host-specific and linked to the phylogenetic diversification of their hosts. However, symbiotic copepods are poorly investigated, occurrence records are mostly anecdotal, and no explicit analysis exists regarding their relationship with the hosts. Here, we analysed the occurrence of symbiotic copepods on different co-occurring and phylogenetically closely related scleractinian corals.