DLSU prof finds new species of coral

De La Salle University-Manila Biology Department faculty researcher Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan discovered a new species of reef coral.

The new coral, to be named Leptoseris Kalaayanesis, was collected form the NE Investigator Shoal of the Kalayaan (Spratley) Islands, off western Palawan. Dr. J.E.N. Veron of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, author of several books and monographs on corals, including the recently published, Corals of the World, confirmed it recently. He went to the Philippines to photograph some specimens stored at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines.

Veron, who also heads the DLSU Alfred Shields Marine Station, also found new records for the country in Licuanan’s collections from the Pacific coast of the Philippines. The new records include a coral species known previously to occur only in the western Indian Ocean, and another reported to be founded only in southern Japan and Taiwan.

The manuscript describing the new coral has already been submitted for review.

Licuanan is also the Project I (Assessment of Reef Resources of Eastern Philippines) leader of the Pacific Seaboard Research and Development Program, funded by the Department of Science and Technology.