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WoRMS taxon details

Porites lutea Milne Edwards & Haime, 1860 
AphiaID: 207246

Classification: Biota > Animalia (Kingdom) > Cnidaria (Phylum) > Anthozoa (Class) > Hexacorallia (Subclass) > Scleractinia (Order) > Poritidae (Family) > Porites (Genus)
Status accepted
Record
status
 Edited by Database Management Team
Rank Species
Parent Porites
Synonymised
taxa
  Porites arenosa (Esper)
Sources  basis of record: Veron, J.E.N. (1986). Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. Angus & Robertson Publishers, London. [details]

basis of record: Sheppard, C.R.C. (1987). Coral species of the Indian Ocean and adjacent seas: a synonymised compilation and some regional distribution patterns. Atoll Research Bulletin Nr 307 [details]

additional source: S.D.Cairns, B.W. Hoeksema & J. van der Land, update Oct. 2007, as a contribution to UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms (look up in IMIS[details]

Vernacular
Names
 
Language   Name 
English hump coral  [details]
Environment marine, terrestrial
Distribution Aldabra [details]
Chagos [details]
East Africa [details]
Indo-West Pacific [details]
Madagascar [details]
Mauritius [details]
Mozambique [details]
Red Sea [details]
Reunion [details]
Rodriguez [details]
Seychelles [details]
Somalia [details]
South Africa (country) [details]
Host of  Kombia curvata Nair & Pillai, 1986 (parasitic: ectoparasitic)
Xenomolgus varius Humes & Stock, 1972 (parasitic: ectoparasitic)
Kombia incrassata Humes, 1984 (parasitic: ectoparasitic)
Orstomella yaliuensis Cheng, Ho & Dai, 2009 (parasitic: endoparasitic)
Links To Barcode of Life (3 barcodes)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (43 publications)
To Encyclopedia of Life
To GenBank (46 nucleotides; 7 proteins)
To IUCN Red List
To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Cnidaria Collection
To ITIS
Notes  Biology: zooxanthellate [details]

Description: Colonies reach several metres across when fully grown. They are basically hemispherical, but in moderately or strongly sedimented conditions tend to develop thick, upward growing columns. Important comparative features are that in P. lutea the septal triplet fuse to form a trident, and calices are smaller and walls usually thicker than in P. solida. Also, calices have five or six large pali which help to distinguish this from P. solida. This species is very widespread. It is at its most abundant in sheltered areas such as on back reef slopes of patch reefs and in bays, where huge colonies cover over 75% of the substrate over thousands of square metres, between the surface and 15 m deep. These colonies tend to be columnar in shape, a condition which seems to be initiated by sedimentation into depressions of the surface of the coral and death of the covered sections (Sheppard, 1998).
Colonies are hemispherical or helmet-shaped and may be very large. The surface is usually smooth. Colour: usually cream or yellow but may be bright colours in shallow water. Abundance: very common and occurs with P. lobata and P. australiensis on back reef margins, lagoons and fringing reefs (Veron, 1986).
Characteristic of the massive species, which are difficult to tell apart. Colonies are hemispherical, often very large, and may be undercut at the base. The outer surface may be loosely folded in flat mounds and ridges but is smooth in texture. Corallites are 1-1.5 mm in diameter. Colour: usually varies from pale grey to yellow, lime-green or pink. Habitat: shallow lagoons, where they may form micro-atolls, and fringing reefs (Richmond, 1997). [details]

Type locality: Fiji (Veron, 1986). Spelled P. luta in Sloan et al. (1979). [details]
Image 
Porites lutea
Porites lutea
added on 2010-11-09 - author: Collection VLIZ ()
qualitystatus: not checked
LSID urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:207246
Taxonomic
Edit history
 
Date   action   by
1997-02-03 14:17:27Z  created  Vanden Berghe, Edward
2000-09-13 07:19:12Z  changed  Garcia, Maria
2008-01-16 10:35:54Z  changed  van der Land, Jacob
  
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  Citation: WoRMS (2013). Porites lutea Milne Edwards & Haime, 1860. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207246 on 2013-05-21
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