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 : 812

Acropora abrotanoides (Lamarck, 1816)

Fig. 2

Colony growth form: Strongly irregular with thick prostrate to upright branches and an encrusting base; basal branches are highly fused and upward-projecting ones may be pointed or rounded, bearing many axial corallites.

Axial corallites: Outer diameter 1.6–2.3 mm; inner diameter 0.7–1.1 mm; not well differentiated from radial corallites at the tip of branches; long and tubular; primary septa extend deep within calyx; secondary septa absent.

Radial corallites: Mixture of sizes and shapes gives colony spiny appearance; long and tubular with clearly dimidiate opening; shorter ones are completely dimidiate; interspersed are sub-immersed corallites with round opening; long tubular incipient axial corallites with round opening are frequent; septal development is reduced to lines of spines. Coenosteum: Costate on radial corallites and reticulate with scattered spinules in intercorallite areas.

Remarks: This species has similarities with A. robusta (Dana, 1846), but is distinguished mainly by the profusion of incipient axial corallites distally on branches and for having more elongate radial corallites.

Figures

Fig. 2. Acropora abrotanoides. Specimen number: VAM61. (A) branch detail; (B) radial corallites; (C) coenosteum between corallites; (D) axial corallites; (E) live colony.