Acropora halmaherae Wallace & Wolstenholme, 1998

Licuanan, Wilfredo Y. & Capili, Emmi B., 2004, New Records Of Stony Corals From The Philippines Previously Known From Peripheral Areas Of The Indo-Pacific, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 52 (2), pp. 285-288 : 287-288

Acropora halmaherae Wallace & Wolstenholme

( Fig. 4 )

Acropora halmaherae Wallace & Wolstenholme, 1998: 258-260 ; Wallace 1999: 296-297.

Acropora parilis Veron, 2000 Vol 1: 410

Material examined. – One sample (30.3 cm long by 30.4 cm wide by 14.2 cm tall) (P1L01202), northern Lianga Bay , Surigao del Sur, (8.66666 N, 126.2 E, Depth: 8m), coll. Wilfredo Y. Licuanan, 22 Jan.2002 .

Description. – Corallum arborescent with widely-spaced fine branches, 8-11 mm in diameter at the base tapering to branchlets 5-6 mm near the tips. Incipient branches are common, and form almost perpendicular to the main branch near the corallum base. Axial corallites 1.0 mm outer diameter, 0.6 mm inner diameter with primary septa extending from one-half to three-fourths the corallite radius. Secondary septa are reduced to ridges or absent. Radial corallites about the same diameter as the axial corallite. These are crowded but not touching, tubular round to nariform in shape, but mostly the former. Radials usually with prominent directives that may extend past the calice center. Coenosteum reticulate, with simple to elaborate spinules arranged in neat rows. Wallace & Wolstenholme (1998) describes this species as being similar to A. derawanensis Wallace, 1997 except for the latter’s smaller branch diameter, shorter branches with more widely spaced radials and a coenosteum with finer spinules. Veron (2000) synonymizes A. halmaherae with A. parilis (Quelch, 1886) but the latter is distinct in that it has larger and more exsert axial corallites, and radial corallites that grow longer near the branch tips.

Figures

Fig. 4. Colony and close-up of Stylophora kuehlmanni (P1L00542).