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Natural history collections serve as invaluable reservoirs of biological information, transcending generations of researchers and offering insights far beyond the imaginations of their original collectors. In this study, we focus on sponge collections housed at the Western Australia Museum, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and other institutions, aiming to reveal the hidden diversity of sponge-associated zoantharians resting within these repositories. The genus Umimayanthus predominantly comprises species that live in obligate symbioses with sponges, suggesting a strong potential for previously unrecognized zoantharian species within sponge collections. Our investigation encompasses sponge specimens collected from Western Australia and eastern Indonesia. Based on our morphological and molecular analyses, we herein describe six species of Umimayanthus new to science, and redescribe another species described over a century ago. These species can be distinguished by their sponge associations, gross polyp and colony morphology, and depths. Our results underscore the Central Indo-Pacific region, particularly Western Australia and Indonesia, as a hotspot for sponge-associated zoantharian diversity. Additionally, we provide a key for the identification of all formally described Umimayanthus species, but caution that there are likely more Umimayanthus species that await discovery.

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This page is a summary of: Museum collections as untapped sources of undescribed diversity of sponge-zoantharian associations with the description of six new species of Umimayanthus (Zoantharia: Parazoanthidae) from Western Australia and eastern Indonesia, Contributions to Zoology, August 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/18759866-bja10069.
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