Tethocyathus minor ( Gardiner, 1899 )

Cairns, S. D., 2004, The Azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Coelenterata: Anthozoa) of Australia, Records of the Australian Museum 56, pp. 259-329 : 319-320

7. Tethocyathus minor ( Gardiner, 1899)

Fig. 12L

Thecocyathus minor Gardiner, 1899: 163 , pl. 19, figs. 3a,b.– Crossland, 1952: 103–104 (Qld).

Tethocyathus minor .–Stephenson & Wells, 1956: 59 (listed).– Wells, 1964: 108 (listed).– Veron, 1986: 605 (listed).

? Polycyathus sp. Veron, 1986: 606 (listed).

Remarks. The specimens reported from the Great Barrier Reef by Crossland (1952) as Thecocyathus minor are deposited at BM (1984.6.11.1–3). They are not that species, but an indeterminate species of Polycyathus , similar to P. andamanensis Alcock, 1893 .

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8. The specimen described as Flabellum vacuum Crossland, 1952 from the Great Barrier Reef is in fact the zooxanthellate species Catalaphyllia jardinei ( Kent, 1893) (Veron & Pichon, 1980).

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9. The colour illustration of Dendrophyllia (= Cladopsammia ) gracilis Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848 by Veron (1986: 578–579) from Heron Island cannot be verified from this picture.

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10. The listing of Dendrophyllia sp. cf. D. robusta ( Bourne, 1905) by Wells (1964: 109) from Queensland is undocumented.

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11–16. The following six species were listed by Veron (1986) in his account of non-reefal Australian Scleractinia , but they are undocumented by specimens and thus not included in this report: Astrangia rathbuni , Flabellum (= Truncatoflabellum ) stokesi, Flabellum elongatum , Trochocyathus meridionalis , Cylindrophyllia sp., and Tubastraea faulkneri .

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. I would like to thank the following people who have generously hosted my visits to their collections or loaned me specimens from their institutions: Penny Berents ( AM), Carden Wallace and Peter Arnold ( MTQ), Phil Alderslade ( NTM), Philipp Heck (Institute for Isotope Geology and Mineral Resources, Zürich), Stuart Norrington (Macleay Museum), Timothy Stranks ( NMV), Jane Fromont ( WAM), Sheila Halsey ( BM), Charlie Veron ( AIMS), Stephen Cook ( QMB), and Noel James ( QUO). Dr Penny Berents was particularly helpful in helping me obtain station data and facilitating my visit to AM in 2002. An NSF-PEET grant (DEB-9978086) funded my trip to Sydney and Townsville in February 2002. I also thank my research assistant, Linda Cole , for helping with the Station List , and Ralph Chapman ( University of Idaho) for advice on the zoogeographic analysis. The scanning electron microscopy was done by the author at the SEM Lab of the National Museum of Natural History , Smithsonian Institution .