Two new species, one in the genus Incendia, and one in Seiria, are illustrated and described here from mesophotic peyssonnelioid specimens collected in the Hawaiian Islands based on molecular and morphological analyses. Both genera are reported from Hawai‘i for the first time. Incendia lisianskiensis sp. nov. differs from the other nine described members of the genus by its lack of hair cells, by the perithallial filaments arising at a more or less 90º angle from the hypothallus, while Seiria mesophotica sp. nov. is distinguished from the only other described species, S. magnifusa, by its lack of obvious and well-developed perithallial cell fusions. With the description of these two species the total number of recognized Hawaiian members of the Peyssonneliales rises to nine. Previously recorded species included Peyssonnelia conchicola, P. inamoena, P. japonica, P. rubra, Ramicrusta hawaiiensis, R. lehuensis, and Sonderophycus copusii.
Two genera of the Rhodymeniales, Halopeltis and Leptofauchea, are here reported for the first time from the Hawaiian Islands and represent the deepest records for both genera. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), rbcL, and large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSU) sequences for Hawaiian specimens of Leptofauchea revealed one well-supported clade of Hawaiian specimens and three additional lineages. One of these clades is described here as Leptofauchea huawelau sp. nov., and is thus far known only from mesophotic depths at Penguin Bank in the Main Hawaiian Islands. L. huawelau sp. nov. is up to 21 cm, and is the largest known species. An additional lineage identified in the LSU and rbcL analyses corresponds to the recently described L. lucida from Western Australia, and is a new record for Hawai‘i. Hawaiian Halopeltis formed a well-supported clade along with H. adnata from Korea, the recently described H. tanakae from mesophotic depths in Japan, and H. willisii from North Carolina, and is here described as Halopeltis nuahilihilia sp. nov. H. nuahilihilia sp. nov. has a distinctive morphology of narrow vegetative axes that harbor constrictions along their length. The current distribution of H. nuahilihilia includes mesophotic depths around W. Maui, W. Moloka‘i, and the island of Hawai‘i in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Few reproductive characters were observed because of the small number of specimens available; however, both species are distinct based on phylogeny and morphology. These descriptions further emphasize the Hawaiian mesophotic zone as a location harboring many undescribed species of marine macroalgae.
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