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
cerealis
(Dana, 1846)
Fig. 7
Colony growth form
: Small corymbose bushes.
Axial corallites
: Outer diameter
2.8–3.6 mm
; inner diameter
0.9–1.2 mm
; tubular with thick wall; blade-like septa are present in two neat cycles.
Radial corallites
: Uniformly sized and arranged; nariform with extending and thickened outer wall that can be slightly hooked; opening is very elongate or dimidiate; septa are dentate but rudimentary.
Coenosteum
: Costate or broken costae on and between radial corallites.
Remarks:
A. cerealis
has a resemblance to
A. nasuta
(Dana, 1846), but
Wallace and Wolstenholme (1998)
differentiate them by
A. cerealis
having thinner branches and radial corallites with more extended outer-wall, sometimes hooked upwards. Our diagnosis is mainly based on these two features as well as the different coenosteum structure. As noted by
Veron and Wallace (1984)
,
A. cerealis
also has a more branching growth pattern than
A. nasuta
, which was also the case here.