Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Sciences

Vol. 44(12), December 2015, pp. 1894-1896

Occurrence of rare coralline red algae Mastophora rosea (C. Agardh)

Setchell, from Little Andaman, India
P.Karthick1, R. Mohanraju1, Kada Narayana Murthy1, CH. Ramesh1 & M. Palanisamy2
1
Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, Brookshabad Campus,
Port Blair, 744112, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
2
Botanical Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, TNAU Campus, Coimbatore -641 003,
Tamil Nadu, India
[E.Mail: karthickmicrobes@gmail.com]

Received 23 July 2014; revised 16 September 2014

Coralline red algae Mastophora rosea (Corallinaceae, Corallinales, Rhodophyta) were collected from tide pools from Little
Andaman during August 2013. Collected sample was found to be bluish purple in color, dichotomously branched, round shaped
carpogonial conceptacles were found on the surface of thallus, tetrasporangial open pore size 120 µm was spherical in shape. The
algae was identified up to species level and was found to be a new distributional record to Andaman and Nicobar islands.

[Keywords: Coralline algae, Little Andaman, Mastophora]

Introduction formalin. Samples were also shade dried and used

Coralline red algae are found to be hard
due the presence of calcareous deposits and are
mostly found in coral reefs, intertidal rocky shore,
tide pools and also an epiphytes on other algae
and some are epizoic. Mastophora are coralline
algae classified under the subfamily
Mastophoroideae (Corallinaceae, Corallinales,
Rhodophyta)1,2. Three different species of
Mastophora, M. rosea, M. pacifica and M.
multistrata have been described (Keats et al,
2009)3. Recently coralline algae Cheilosporum
cultratum and green algae Caulerpa lentillifera
have been reported as new distributional records
from Little Andaman Island4 and also its
commercial importance of Little Andaman4,5. A
coralline red algal samples was collected from the
intertidal pools of Harminder Bay Bridge, in Little
Andaman during a survey conducted in the month
of August 2013.
Materials and Method
Coralline algal specimen were collected
by the hand picking method from tide pool of the
intertidal splash zone region of Harminder Bay
bridge, Little Andaman (lat 100 45’N, long. 920
80’ E) during low tide during the month of August
2013. Samples were washed properly with sterile
seawater. For the identification herbarium sheets
were prepared and maintained in our database and
a portion of the sample was preserved with 4%
for measuring the conceptacles, epithelial cells
were measured directly under the Nikon SMZ
1500: WD54 and Nikon Eclipse 50i microscope.
Based on the morphological features identification
was carried out following the key3 and also
following the revised checklist of Indian marine
algae6, Catalogue of benthic marine algae of
Indian Ocean7 and Algae base was referred for the
conformation of new distributional reports.
Mastophora rosea (C. Agardh) Setchell (1943)8
Description
Sample was found to be coralline red
algae showing bluish purple in color, surface was
much pigmented blue in color than the rhizoids
(Fig 1), dichotomously branched, end of the
thallus were shaped like a fan. Thallus was small,
thick, with rectangular shaped cell arrangement
with surface of thallus possessing cylindrical or
ring shaped conceptacles (Fig 2). Microscopy
observation revealed that the outer cell
arrangements were rectangular in shape (Fig 3),
diameter of the round shaped conceptacle was
ranged from 764 -887 µm (Fig 3) and diameter of
open pore was between 81-120µm (Fig 4).
Distribution: China (Tseng 1984; Zhou &
Zang 1987), Guam (Agardh 1824; Turner &
Woelkerling 1982), Indonesia (Verheij &
Prud’homme van Reine 1993; Silva et al. 1987),
Micronesia (Lobban & Tsuda 2003). Papua New
 KARTHICK et al.: OCCURRENCE OF RARE CORALLINE RED ALGAE MASTOPHORA ROSEA (C. AGARDH)
Guinea (Littler & Littler 2003), Philippines (Silva
et al. 1987), Japan (Yoshida et al. 1990),
Fig. 1- Bluish purple Mastophora rosea coralline red algae
Fig. 2- Dichotomous branch with conceptacles on the dorsal
surface with bundles of Carpogonial conceptacles
Discussion
Coralline red algae are mostly found in
coral reefs, tide pools and in intertidal rocky
substratum. Mastophora rosea were observed in
the littoral zone of Hsiau- Liuchiu in Taiwan9.
Earlier this algae Mastophora rosea had been
misidentified by various authors, and only recent
studies define a clear distribution pattern of
Mastophora rosea based on their morphological
and characteristic features well documented by
microscopic observation3. Color configuration of
Mastophora rosea was observed to vary with
different color patterns in Indo-Pacific and
1895
Taiwan (Huang 1990), Vietnam (Abbott et al.
2002). Ryukyu Islands3 (Keats et al, 2009).
Fig.3- Microscopic view of carpogonial conceptacles and
rectangular epithelial cells.
Fig. 4- Close view of carpogonial conceptacle open pore
clearly visible under the microscope.
Australia region as ‘rose, orange-pink to purple in
color, whereas its purple red in China. In the
present study Mastophora rosea was found to be
bluish purple in color during the collection of
specimen and retained its pigmentation even in
pressed herbarium sheets but lost its pigmentation
when the samples were preserved with formalin
after a long time. Little Andaman is situated in the
middle of Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands
in the Bay of Bengal, where most of the intertidal
regions are not disturbed because of the
inaccessibility to these place and the west coast of
this island comes under the restricted region and
1896 INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 44, NO. 12 DECEMBER 2015

thus survey cannot be undertaken. Recent studies 5. Mohanraju, R and Tanushree. P. Seaweed distribution
shows the occurrence of Caulerpa lentillifera, a in South and Little Andaman. In: Ecology of Faunal
Communities on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
commercially important species and coralline edited by K. Venkataraman, C. Raghunathan and C.
algae Cheilosporum cultratum as new Sivaperuman. (Springer, Heidelberg), (2012):
distributional finding from this island4. Present pp.149-158.
findings signify the importance in understanding 6. Oza, M.R and Zaidi, S.H., A Revised Checklist of
Indian Marine Algae. CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, India,
seaweed diversity in this region and the need for (2001): pp. 296
documenting the presence of other species or new 7. Silva, C.P., Basson, P.W. & Moe, R.L. Catalogue of the
distributional records from this unexplored benthic marine algae of the Indian Ocean. University of
environment in Little Andaman. California press, London, (1996): pp. 136.
8. Setchell, W.A. Mastophora and the Mastophoreae:
Acknowledgement genus and subfamily of Corallinaceae. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, Washington,
Authors wish to thank University Authorities for (1943): pp. 127–135.
providing the facilities. 9. Huang, S.F. The marine algal flora of Hsiao-Liuchiu
Island. Bot. Bull. Academia. Sinica., 31 (1990):
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