ИСТИНА

More than 360 species of copepods, representing many different families and orders, are known to be symbionts of scleractinian corals. Our current understanding of the patterns of geographical distribution of coral-associated copepods is based on the fragmentary taxonomic data obtained from several localities with a notable lack of knowledge for many parts of the world. Since the overall diversity of coral-host species and their copepod symbionts numbers in the hundreds of species (and therefore cannot be evaluated in a single project), hermatypic corals of the genus Galaxea (Scleractinia: Euphylliidae) were chosen as a model group. So far 18 species from eight genera of copepods representing three orders (Siphonostomatoida, Poecilostomatoida, and Cyclopoida) have been distinguished morphologically in association with three species of Galaxea from five locations: the Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Madagascar, leaving the rest of the Indo-Pacific unexplored. In our project we collected and analyzed more than 1000 copepod specimens from 43 colonies of Galaxea in six distinct regions of the Indo-Pacific: Heron and Lizard Islands of the GBR, Ningaloo Reef on the west coast of Australia, Hainan Island in China, south Vietnam, some southern atolls of Maldives, and various reefs along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast. Nuclear (ITS2, 18S) and mitochondrial (CO1) markers were used for species delineation and taxonomic assessment. Combined analysis of morphological and molecular data revealed a remarkably high diversity of copepods. Results on diversity and zoogeographical distribution of copepods associated with Galaxea in the Indo-Pacific will be presented. Keywords: copepod, coral, scleractinia, diversity, symbiosis, phylogeny, biogeography, Galaxea.