Epulo multipedes gen. et sp. nov. is described for a coralline red alga growing parasitically on Jania collected from eastern Australia. Epulo is a monospecific genus with vegetative filaments that invade host cells and totally disrupt them, a phenomenon not seen before in the Corallinaceae. The new genus comprises two phases: an unconsolidated vegetative portion that is endophytic within the host tissue, and reproductive conceptacles formed at the surface of the host. Vegetative cells are uninucleate and form haustoria within host cells. Reproductive conceptacles are formed when outgrowths of the parasite consolidate at the surface. Tetrasporangial conceptacles are multiporate, with zonate tetrasporangia. Sexual conceptacles are uniporate. Epulo is included in the tribe Austrolithoideae and has affinities with Austrolithon, but differs in being parasitic, having uninucleate rather than multinucleate cells, and having conceptacles formed externally on the host.
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Townsend et al. (2004) studied this question.
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