| Abstract: | Two new species of the red algal genus Predaea are described from Australia. The first, Predaea aurora Kraft et G.W. Saunders, sp. nov., is unusual in its cool‐temperate distribution and in a number of anatomical attributes, most notably the rhizoid‐like habit of the nutritive filaments associated with the auxiliary cells. The second species, Predaea tumescens Kraft et G.W. Saunders, sp. nov., inhabits a coral reef habitat more typical of the genus but nonetheless differs in a number of anatomical details from other reported species. Nuclear small subunit rDNA sequences have confirmed the affinity of P. aurora to other species currently included in this genus. Molecular analyses further indicate that Predaea belongs in the Nemastomataceae and that the Nemastomataceae and Schizymeniaceae are sister taxa in an independent clade of “lineage 4” florideophyte algae. As such, a proposal is made to resurrect the Nemastomatales Kylin emend. G.W. Saunders et Kraft to accommodate these two families. Within the Schizymeniaceae, the Australian‐endemic Platoma australicum and Platoma foliosum were only distantly related to the other included Platoma, Schizymenia, and Titanophora spp. We therefore propose Wetherbeella G.W. Saunders et Kraft, gen. nov., to accommodate these two species. An additional outcome of our molecular analyses is that the genus Tsengia is not a member of the Nemastomataceae (where it is currently placed) but rather forms an independent lineage in the Halymeniales that we now designate as the Tsengiaceae G.W. Saunders et Kraft, fam. nov. Finally, the South African Nemastoma lanceolatum J. Agardh is transferred to Tsengia. |
