Key to the species of Litophyton group IV (3 species)

(polyp stalk without small rods)

1. Polyps with strongly developed sclerites................................................................ L. grandis

-. Polyps with less strongly developed sclerites.................................................................... 2

2. Big wide interior spindles (> 1 mm long) with very regular tubercles........................................ L. carnatum

-. Small slender interior spindles (<1 mm long); opaque polyp sclerites................................................ 3

3. Spindles with blunt ends present in interior of the base of the stalk.......................................... L. oxleyensis

-. No spindles with blunt ends...................................................................... L. pandoraensis

Remarks. As the polyps of L. oxleyensis mostly have scales it also fits group III, where it was described.

L. compactum (Verseveldt, 1966), described from Indonesia, falls in this group (Figs. 42 g-h, 56b, 57). It has similar tuberculated interior stalk sclerites as L. carnatum but they are only about 1 mm long in L. compactum . It differs from L. pandoraensis by having the tuberculation of the interior stalk sclerites much finer, and from L. grandis, which has much stronger developed point sclerites.

L. elongatum (Kükenthal, 1895) (Ternate, Indonesia) resembles L. compactum but because of a large amount of detritus attached to the colony the polyp sclerite arrangement could not be drawn. However, the colony and sclerites are presented (Fig. 56c, 58). The most obvious difference is the presence of long rods (Fig. 58d), which are not from the polyp stalk but are polyp spindles.

L. pyramidalis (Kükenthal, 1895) (Ternate, Indonesia) (Figs. 56d, 59) shows sclerites similar to those of L. elongatum and therefore I here synonymize it with L. elongatum (Kükenthal, 1895) . Especially the smooth spindles from the interior of the top of the stalk are strikingly similar in both species (Figs. 58g, 59h). The polyp sclerite arrangement of L. pyramidalis could be drawn (Fig. 59a).