Acropora, Oken, 1815

Sola, Erwan, Silva, Isabel Marques da & Glassom, David, 2015, An annotated and illustrated checklist of species of the coral genus Acropora (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) from Vamizi Island, Mozambique, African Invertebrates 56 (3), pp. 807-807 : 822-823

Acropora cf. forskali (Ehrenberg, 1834)

Fig. 12

Colony growth form: Irregular shape with prostrate branches contorted in all directions; main branches may or may not have small projecting secondary branchlets, and look hispidose when they do; secondary branches on under surface of main branch often reduced to short incipient axials.

Axial corallites: Outer diameter 1.9–2.5 mm; inner diameter 0.9–1.1 mm; slightly exsert and tapering; thick walled with wide round opening; primary septa are blade-like; second cycle absent or poorly developed visible only as points.

Radial corallites: On main branches, radials are mostly immersed or sub-immersed; on branchlets, radial corallites are numerous and similar in size and shape, nariform and aligned. Incipient axials may occur sparsely.

Coenosteum: Costate on radial corallites, reticulate with scattered simple spinules in between.

Remarks: The present specimen has a great resemblance with A. florida, with hispidose branches consistent to Wallace’s (1999) A. florida. Main branches, however, appear more contorted and frequently anastomosed. In addition, the radial corallites are slightly longer and thinner with very neat costae. For these reasons, and because the field photographs of this species are strikingly similar to that of A. forskali from Madagascar shown in Veron (2000), it is identified as A. forskali in this study.

Figures

Fig. 12. Acropora cf.forskali.(A) live colony (B) branch fragment; (C) axial corallite; (D) radial corallites; (E) coenosteum between corallites.