Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Cryptochiridae is a family of crabs known commonly as gall crabs or coral gall crabs. They live inside dwellings in corals and cause the formation of galls in the coral structure. [1] [2] The family is currently placed in its own superfamily, Cryptochiroidea. Gall crabs are sexually dimorphic, with males being much smaller than females ...
Members of the genus Melithaea are arborescent colonial corals forming fan, bush or tree shapes. The axis or main skeletal "trunk" is jointed, there being nodes, flexible horny joints, separated by internodes composed of hard, calcareous material.
Melithaea ochracea grows on shallow reefs in the South China Sea between Taiwan and Indonesia.Its range also includes Singapore and Malaysia. [3] In Taiwan, it is the most widespread gorgonian coral and is found on the higher parts of reef fronts where its numerous small polyps can feed at water flow rates varying from 4 to 40 centimetres (1.6 to 15.7 in) per second.
G. ventalina is a fan-shaped colonial coral with several main branches and a latticework of linking smaller branches. The skeleton is composed of calcite and gorgonin , a collagen -like compound. The calyces in which the polyps are embedded are in two rows along the branches.
Several species of coral-inhabiting barnacles are associated with Astreopora. In fact, Hiroa stubbingsi and two species of Cionophorus seem to occur nowhere else. In the case of H. stubbingsi , which has a primitive wall and a relatively unspecialised operculum , this may be because it is not equipped to occupy other corals, but the Cionophorus ...
The coral is densely branched but usually grows in a single plane. The colour varies and is usually some shade of red, orange or deep yellow but purple specimens occasionally occur. The skeleton is not rigid so the whole fan-like structure can sway with the movement of the surrounding water.
Fungia fungites may be confused with specimens of the related genus Cycloseris but the latter are always free living, even as juveniles, while the former bear a scar showing where they were attached when young. Fungia corals, like other large polyp stony corals, have developed several feeding strategies.
The skeleton of a stony coral in the order Scleractinia is secreted by the epidermis of the lower part of the polyp; this forms a corallite, a cup-shaped hollow made of calcium carbonate, in which the polyp sits. In colonial corals, following growth of the polyp by budding, new corallites are formed, with the surface of the skeleton being ...