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 : 827

Acropora hemprichii (Ehrenberg, 1834)

Fig. 16

Colony growth form: Irregularly arborescent; stubby branches irregularly sub-divide.

Axial corallites: Outer diameter 3.2–3.7 mm; inner diameter 0.9–1.1 mm; large and dome shaped; two neat cycles of septa are present.

Radial corallites: Crowded on branch; dimorphic; tubular to rounded-tubular with round opening, sometimes slightly oblique;

Coenosteum: Dense reticulate with lines of laterally flattened spinules on corallites; less densely reticulate with scattered spinules between corallites.

Remarks: This species is closely related to and difficult to distinguish from A. austera (see Wallace 1999). We made the distinction between the two species on the basis that colonies of A. hemprichii were sturdier and more sprawling than those of A. austera observed at Vamizi Island. The branches were also more twisted with less exsert axial corallites and shorter, rounder radial corallites.

Figures

Fig.16.Acroporahemprichii. (A) branchfragment;(B) axial corallite;(C, D)radial corallites;(E)coenosteum between corallites. Note that no field photograph is available due to camera failure during the collection of this specimen.