Favites, Link, 1807

Salimi, Parisa Alidoost, Mostafavi, Pargol Ghavam, Chen, Chaolun Allen, Fatemi, Seyed Mohammad Reza & Pichon, Michel, 2018, Microphysogobio bicolor, Zoological Studies 57 (56), pp. 1-34 : 14-15

Favites pentagona ( Esper, 1794)

( Fig. 14 )

Synonym: Madrepora pentagona Esper, 1794; Astraea deformis Lamarck, 1816; Aphrastraea deformis Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848; Prionastraea gibbosissima Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850; Goniastrea rudis Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850; Plesiastrea haeckeli Brüggemann, 1878; Favia adduensis Gardiner, 1904; Stephanocoenia maldivensis Gardiner, 1904; Favites parvicella Nemenzo, 1959; Favites gailei Chevalier, 1971.

Material examined: Abu-Musa Island ( ZUTC 6602), Sirri Island ( ZUTC 6603). Other Material: Kish Island ( ZUTC 6604). Description: Colony is encrusting to nodular with irregular shapes. Corallites arrangement is cerioid and formation by intratentacular budding. Corallite outline is irregular and subcircular to polygonal, at times distinctly pentagonal. Calice diameter 3-6 mm. Septa are mostly in two orders, primary septa reaching the columella with conspicuous paliforme lobes. Secondary septa reduced and limited to the wall, in some corallites a third order of septa can be observed but is much reduced and limited to wall (or abortive). Septal margins have small-tiny horizontal flattened teeth. Well-developed paliform lobes forming a crown around the columella. Columella is compact or made of few tangled trabecular poorly developed. Theca is thick and angular.

Remarks: This species displays different colony forms. Main differences among specimens were the shapes of paliform lobes and their ornamentation ( Fig. 15a ). Indeed, skeletal examination indicated corallites traits (e.g. paliform crown, septa, etc.) were stable among the specimens ( Fig. 15 c-d).

Distribution: Widespread in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Indo-Pacific.

Figures

Fig. 14. (a-b) Morphotypes of Favites pentagona from Sirri and Abu-Musa Islands; (c-d) close-up of corallites and well developed paliform. Scale bar = 1 mm © 2018 Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Fig. 15. (a-b) Favites chinensis from Abu-Musa Island; (c-d) close-up of corallites. Scale bar = 1 mm.