Discovery of two new species of red algae Myrinus from a depth of 35 m off the west coast of Tanegashima Island.

As part of the practical education, a research team from the United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences and the Graduate School of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Kagoshima University has conducted an annual dredge survey using the training ship “Nansei-Maru” belonging to the Faculty of Fisheries of Kagoshima University to investigate deep-sea algae growing at a depth of 35 m off the west coast of Tanegashima. In the course of the survey, we discovered two species of red algae that do not match any known species in either morphological characteristics or genetic analysis, and named them Hirohamirin (Solieria latifolia) and Benihosobamirin (S. yoshidae). The results of this research were published online in Phycologia, a journal of the International Society for Algae Research, on May 12, 2025.

[Article] Solieria latifolia sp. nov. and S. yoshidae sp. nov. (Solieriaceae, Rhodophyta) from offshore Tanegashima Island, Japan.
[Author(s)] Masahiro Suzuki, Chiyuki Zemba and Ryuta Terada
[Journal] Phycologia (published online)
[DOI] https://doi.org/10.1080/00318884.2025.2494493

Left: A photograph of the  Hirohamirin (Solieria latifolia); Right: A photograph of the Benihosobamirin (S. yoshidae)