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174
cocc inea 1834, LESSON. 515; pl. 1-
Coenopsammia ehrenberguma 1860. ftULNE EDWARDS (& HAIME), 127.
1879, KLUNZINGER 2, 56 ; pI. 8/9.
1889, ORTMANN, 512.
1906, y , MARENZELLER, 74.
Dendropbyllia mann; 1907, VAUGHAN. 156; pI. 4616. 6a, 7. 7a .
Coenopsarnmia willey; 1899, GARDINER, 359; pI. 34.
The characters of the species are already summarized under the synopsis of Tubastraea, Though we
have some colonies of Tubastraea in the present collection, only one seems to be referable to this species.
Materi a l:
Gulf of Aqaba: Jerus. SLR 1384- 1 (Wadi Treibe).
Dis t rib u t i 0 n : Red Sea; Madagascar (PICHON , 1964); Chagos ; Maldives; Gulf of Mannar (PILLAI,
1972); Ceylon; Mergui Archipelago; Cocos-Keeling IsIs ,; Singapore; East Indies; Japan ; Great Barrier Reef;
Loyalty IsIs. ; Fanning IsIs .; Society IsIs .; Hawaii IsIs,
Rem ark s : We consider, with other authors, Dendrophyllia manni and Coenopsammia willeyi as
synonym with Tubastraea aurea. Already VAUGHAN (1918: 144) wrote: " I should not be surprised if
large suites of specimens showed that D. aurea, D. danae, D. manni and D. willeyi were variants of the
same species",
Another species of Tubastraea is T. tenuilamellosa (M I LNE EDWARDS & HAIME). BOSCHMA (19;3 :
110) writes: "it is by no means certain that T. tenuilamellosa is specifically distinct from T. aurea, because
the characters on which distinction is based are subject to variation". When the two species prove to be
the same, then T. aurea extends its di rriburion to Galapagos, Gulf of California and Westindies, and
becomes one of the few cosmopolitan corals.
CAIRNS (1979 : 205) states that from the western Atlantic shallow-water ahermatypic scleractinia
" only one species is circumtropical, Tubastraea coccinea", It seems that CAIRNS gives priority to T.
coccinea before T, aurea, In Table 4 (1979 : 207) he mentions " Tubastraea coccinea LESSON, 1831"
instead of 1834 as usual , but he gives no reference for LESSON , 1831.
Tubastraea diaphana (DANA ), 1846
(Fig. 5 ; Plate 41. Figs. 1-4)
Dendropbyllia diapbana 1846, DANA. 389 ; pI. 27/ 3 (Type locality: Singapore).
1872, VERRILL. 384.
1918 , VAUGHAN , 144 ; pI. 6012, 2a, 3, 3a.
1925 . HOFFMEISTER. 48.
We refer most of our Tubastraea colonies with some doubts to this species. It differs from T. aurea
mainly in the elevation of the corallites (10 ro 20 mm) and the greater depth of calices, in the mostly
subdendroid form of budding and in the colour of the living tissue. One of us (SCHEER ) has examined
DANA'S type, No . 180 in the U.S.National Museum (Fig. 5),
Materi a l :
Gulf of Aqaba: T. Aviv S 254, E56 /257 (E ilat),
Northern R. S.: HLM X2 : 3-23 (G uballsl.).
Central R. S.: HLM RM 50- 1, 2, 50a (Wingate R.) .
Dis t rib uti 0 n: Red Sea; Cocos-Keeling IsIs.; Singapore; Great Barrier Reef (STEPHENSON & WELLS ,
1956); Fiji (QUELCH , 1886); Samoa (HOFFMEISTER , 1925),
Rem" r k s: BOSCHMA (1953 : 113) expresses the opinion, that " Dendrophyllia diaphana DANA in
all probalility is a young colony of Tubastraea aurea (QUOY & GAIMARD )", However, we consider the
species as different from T. aurea and report it for the first time from the Red Sea,