Revision and catalogue of worldwide staghorn corals Acropora and Isopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) in the Museum of Tropical Queensland
Author
Wallace, Carden C.
Author
Done, Barbara J.
Author
Muir, Paul R.
text
Memoirs of the Queensland Museu Nature
2012
2012-06-30
57
1
258
journal article
28769
10.5281/zenodo.2163512
efa6ed42-a9c8-4eb7-909e-81fb4091b243
0079-8835
2163512
Acropora stoddarti
Pillai & Scheer, 1976
(
Fig. 97
)
Acropora stoddarti
Pillai & Scheer, 1976: 27
, pls 5–6.
Type locality.
Addu Atoll, Maldives (holotype HSMD).
MTQ Holdings. Maldives:
topotypes G46421–23 Addu Atoll, Maldives.
Species group:
divaricata
.
Description.
Colony outline:
determinate, predominantly arborescent table.
Branches:
tertiary branching order absent; length: 25–50 mm; diameter: 10.0–19.9 mm, 50/50 axial/ radial; tapering; radial crowding: some touching; axial/radial ratio:>1:10.
Axial corallites:
three synapticular rings; not porous; outer diameter 1.9–2.5 mm; inner diameter 0.7–1.3 mm; primary septa to ½ R.
Radial corallites:
medium; three synapticular rings; one size or graded; inner wall developed; shape: nariform; round openings; primary septa to 1/3 R.
Coenosteum:
same on
and between radials: reticulate to reticulocostate, spinule shape: single point or forked.
Taxonomic note.
These specimens at the type locality (Gan I. lagoon, Addu Atoll, Maldives). We have taken
A. stoddarti
out of the synonymy with
A. divaricata
(as given in Wallace 1999): however its precise identity remains elusive. While all specimens share similarities with
A. divaricata
,
there is a high degree of variability, amongst the three specimens at hand, in the width of branches, which range from broad and strap-like to slender and tapering. The colony illustrated bears the greatest similarity to syntype X2:31-24 of Pillai and Scheer (1976).
Further literature:
Veron (2000) (some of the illustrated specimens may not be
A. stoddarti
).