Calliblepharis rammediorum sp. nov. (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) from the Israeli Levant Mediterranean Sea

Calliblepharis rammediorum sp. nov. (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) is described from the northern Levant Mediterranean shore of Israel. The new species has a prostrate creeping habit. It usually grows as an epiphyte, strongly attached by several discoidal holdfasts to the base of branches of some seaweed species, mainly on some non-native species and particularly on Laurencia chondrioides. Phylogenetic analyses of sequence data indicate that C. rammediorum is closely related to an unidentified species from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia. These two are sister to a complex of two genetic groups both assigned to the morphospecies Calliblepharis fimbriata, whose species identity clearly requires further research. Calliblepharis rammediorum is the fourth that is newly described for the genus Calliblepharis since the beginning of the last decade. Aspects of its biology and ecology are also discussed.