Heteractis aurora (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833)

Amjad, Farah, Ahusan, Mohamed, Amir, Hana, de Villiers, Nina M, Gress, Erika, Mah, Christopher L, Naeem, Shafiya, Rico-Seijo, Nuria, Samaai, Toufiek, Afzal, Maryiam S, Woodall, Lucy C & Stefanoudis, Paris V, 2024, An underwater imagery identification guide for shallow, mesophotic and deep-sea benthos in Maldives, Biodiversity Data Journal 12, pp. e 120128-e 120128 : e120128-

Heteractis aurora (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Taxon: scientificName: Heteractis aurora ; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Cnidaria; class: Anthozoa-Hexacorallia; order: Actiniaria ; family: Heteractidae ; genus: Heteractis ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833); Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; country: Maldives; locality: Vaavu, Laamu, Huvadhu ; minimumDepthInMeters: 30; maximumDepthInMeters: 30; locationRemarks: Nekton Maldives Mission; Identification: identifiedBy: Farah Amjad, Paris Stefanoudis; dateIdentified: 2022, 2023; identificationRemarks: Identified only from imagery; Event: samplingProtocol: Submersible OR Remotely Operated Vehicle OR Snorkel; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Human observation

Notes

This genus contains many species with similar morphology. Characterised by an undulated wide oral disc with short marginal tentacles on the outer edge. Diameter of oral disc ~ 12 cm. Colouration highly variable in brown and beige shades (Fig. 49).