Devaleraea, a new genus of the palmariaceae (Rhodophyta) in the north atlantic and north pacific

Devaleraea gen. nov., holotype species Devaleraea ramentacea (Linnaeus) comb.nov., is distinguished from Halosaccion Kützing, lectotype species Halosaccion firmum (Postels & Ruprecht) Kützing, on the basis of vegetative characters. The structure of the cortex and medulla of Devaleraea species is considered to be very close to that of species of Palmaria Stackhouse, the holotype genus of the Palmariaceae. Reproductively the genera Palmaria, Halosaccion and Devaleraea are very similar. Devaleraea ramentacea is widely distributed in the colder waters of the North Atlantic, the Arctic and probably the North Pacific. Two other species of Halosaccion are considered to belong to the new genus Devaleraea: Devaleraea yendoi (I. K. Lee) comb.nov. (= Halosaccion yendoi I. K. Lee), recently described from the island of Hokkaido (Japan), Robben Island, Saghalien and the Kurile Islands (U.S.S.R.); and Devaleraea arctica (A. D. Zinova) comb.nov. (= Halosaccion arcticum A. D. Zinova) from the Arctic Sea, Svalbard (Spitsbergen) and Greenland. The subgenus or section Halocoelia J. Agardh is placed in synonymy with Devaleraea gen.nov.