Siderastreidae

Siderastreidae
Massive Starlet Corals (Siderastrea siderea)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Cnidaria
Class:	Anthozoa
Subclass:	Hexacorallia
Order:	Scleractinia
Family:	Siderastreidae [1] Vaughan & Wells, 1943
Genera
See text

Siderastreidae is a family of reef building stony corals. Members of the family include symbiotic algae called Zooxanthellae in their tissues which help provide their energy requirements.

Description

Members of this family are colonial, hermatypic (reef-building) corals. The corals vary in form and include massive, thickly encrusting, columnar, and irregular forms. The corallites are linked by flowing septa that have granular margins and that are fused in the centre to give fan-shaped or star-shaped groupings. The corallites do not project from the surface of the coral and have ill-defined walls formed from thickened septa.^[2][3]

Genera

The World Register of Marine Species includes the following genera in the family:^[1][2]

• Anomastraea Marenzeller, 1901 – monotypic, only species is Anomastraea irregularis, crisp pillow coral
• Coscinaraea Milne-Edwards & Haime, 1849 – about 10 species
• Craterastrea Head, 1983 – monotypic, only species is Craterastrea levis
• Horastrea Pichon, 1971 – monotypic, only species is Horastrea indica
• Psammocora Dana, 1846 – pillar or cat's paw corals
  • Psammacora explanulata Horst 1922
  • Psammacora haimeana Milne Edwards & Haime 1851
• Pseudosiderastrea Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935^[4]
  • Pseudosiderastrea formosa Pichon, Chuang & Chen, 2012
  • Pseudosiderastrea tayami Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935
• Siderastrea de Blainville, 1830 – starlet corals^[5]
  • Siderastrea glynni Budd & Guzman, 1994
  • Siderastrea radians (Pallas, 1766) – lesser starlet coral or shallow-water starlet coral
  • Siderastrea savignyana Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850
  • Siderastrea siderea (Ellis & Solander, 1768) – massive starlet coral or round starlet coral
  • Siderastrea stellata Verrill, 1868

References