LOBE VARIATION IN SINULARIA-NANOLOBATA VERSEVELDT, 1977 (CCNIDARIA, ALCYONACEA)

Colonies of Sinularia were collected on the reef flat off south Patong , Phuket, Thailand. The lobes in some of the colonies occur in two for ms: (1) those composed of relatively large, spherical or flattened lob ules, here termed ''normal lobes'', and (2) those highly divided into many small, rough surfaced lobules, here termed ''aberrant lobes''. Th e survey revealed that colonies at least 40 cm across were formed of l obes of both morphologies, while smaller colonies were formed only fro m normal lobes. Regardless of lobe morphology, all specimens collected have similar sclerite characteristics, and were identified as S. nano lobata Verseveldt, 1977, family Alcyoniidae. This species appears to b e characterized by intra-specific lobe variation, and such observed in tra-colony lobe variation is presented for an octocoral species for th e first time. It is speculated that the aberrant lobes might be a resu lt of abnormal regeneration of damaged areas of the colonies as a resp onse either to predation, or some adverse environmental conditions enc ountered by large colonies in the course of their life span. The aberr ant lobes reflect part of the variation of the operational species and emphasize the need to consider total colony morphology during taxonom ic practice, and also to assess the ranges of intraspecific variation among alcyoniid octocorals.