Stylophora kuehlmanni Scheer & Pillai, 1983

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

Stylophora kuehlmanni Scheer & Pillai

( Fig. 4 )

Stylophora kuehlmanni Scheer & Pillai, 1983: 25 ; Veron, 2000 Vol 2: 62.

Material examined. – One sample (19.5 cm long by 16.7 cm wide by 12.2 cm tall) (P1L00542), Casapsapan, Casiguran , Aurora (16.33685 N, 122.20528 E, Depth: 12 m), coll. Wilfredo Y. Licuanan, 14 May.2001 .

Description. – Corallum is composed of short, anastomosing, knobby to pointed branchlets, 2.5 cm diameter at the base and 0.5 cm at the tip. Corallites at the branch sides strongly hooded on the upper margins, with the pointed hoods extending over the columella. The corallites are densely spaced near the branch tips, becoming sparser and less inclined at the base of the corallum. Corallite diameter about 1.0 mm with one cycle of septa fusing with the prominent styliform to sometimes flattened columella. Coenosteum is mostly covered by small spines.

Corallites of this specimen are far larger, and the branches are not as prostrate, as described by Scheer & Pillai (1983); but conforms with the description of Veron (2000) especially with regards to branch diameters and strongly hooded corallites. Stylophora subseriata (Ehrenberg, 1834) has similar branches but has little development of corallite hoods (Veron, 2000).

FAMILY ACROPORIDAE

Figures

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