Fatty acid composition of five zoantharia from the Senegalese coast: Palythoa dartevellei Pax, P. monodi Pax, P. variabilis Duerden, P. senegalensis Pax and their associated Zooxanthellae, and P. senegambiensis Carter and its commensal, the decapoda Diogenes ovatus Miers

Abstract 1. 1. The quantitative and qualitative fatty acid composition of five Palythoa from the Senegalese coast and their associated organisms: Zooxanthellae symbiont or decapoda commensal have been determined by capillary G.C. 2. 2. The fatty acid compositiion of each associated organism, host and symbiont or commensal, presents enough characteristic differences to think that each of them synthesizes de novo its own fatty acids. 3. 3. These results suggest to us that the fatty acid composition of Palythoa and of Zooxanthellae might be a better and more useful tool for the taxonomic classification of these two families than sterol composition.