An annotated and illustrated checklist of species of the coral genus Acropora (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) from Vamizi Island, Mozambique
Author
Sola, Erwan
Author
Silva, Isabel Marques da
Author
Glassom, David
text
African Invertebrates
2015
2015-12-31
56
3
807
807
http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.5733/afin.056.0320
journal article
10.5733/afin.056.0320
2305-2562
7914925
Acropora
cf.
appressa
(Ehrenberg, 1834) (Riegl 1995 as
A. sordiensis
)
Fig. 3
Colony growth form
: Caespito-corymbose; branches are irregularly anastomosed and taper slightly. Incipient axial corallites are common distally on branch.
Fig. 3.
Acropora
cf.
appressa.
Specimen number: VAM68. (A) live colony; (B) branch detail; (C) radial corallites; (D) axial corallite; (E) coenosteum between corallites.
Axial corallites
: Outer diameter
2.9 mm
; inner diameter 1.0 mm; prominent, dome-shaped to conical with small round opening; clearly, two septal cycles are well developed and a third cycle may be visible.
Radial corallites
: Irregularly sized and arranged, appressed tubular with round to oblique opening; the most appressed ones have a reduced inner wall and those with oblique opening are usually hooked upward; towards the base of branches, radials are generally absent or sub-immersed to immersed; two cycles of dentate septa, directives are usually prominent.
Coenosteum
: Dense arrangement of laterally flattened spinules with elaborated tips throughout.
Remarks: At locations like
Madagascar
, the
Seychelles
and
Tanzania
, this species usually has longer and more conical axial corallites (see
Veron 2000
). Our specimen, however, is more consistent with those described in Riegl (1995) (as
A. sordiensis
), owing to the similar growth form, the characteristics of radial corallites with some having a hooked lip, and the structure of the coenosteum, which consists of an arrangement of elaborated spinules.