Physogyra lichtensteini (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1851)

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-

Physogyra lichtensteini (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1851)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Taxon: scientificName: Physogyra lichtensteini ; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Cnidaria; class: Anthozoa-Hexacorallia; order: Scleractinia ; family: Incerta saedis; genus: Physogyra ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1851); Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; country: Maldives; locality: Addu ; minimumDepthInMeters: 10; maximumDepthInMeters: 30; locationRemarks: Nekton Maldives Mission; Identification: identifiedBy: Farah Amjad, Paris Stefanoudis, Mariyam Shidha Afzal, Hana Amir; dateIdentified: 2022, 2023; identificationRemarks: Identified only from imagery; Event: samplingProtocol: Submersible OR Remotely Operated Vehicle OR Snorkel; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Human observation

Notes

Colonies are massive or thickly encrusting. Colony surface is entirely covered in bubble-like, teardrop-shaped vesicles giving a fuzzy appearance. Vesicles paler white than the rest of the colony. When vesicles are constricted, shared walls of corallites that form valleys can be observed. Colony size ~ 20 cm in the longest dimension (Fig. 86).