Golfball coral
Favia fragum
(Esper, 1795)

Description:
Colonies massive; usually forming hemispherical domes, but occasionally forming small encrustations on the substrate.

Color:
Yellow to golden-brown and brown.

Corallites:
Corallites with 1 to 3 polyps, oval with protruding rims of less than 2 mm high. Coenosteum smaller than the valley or corallite width. Corallites with nearly 4 complete cycles, with 12-24 septa per cm. Thickness of the septa in different cycles unequal. Costae of neighboring corallites distinct, and the thickness of the costae are unequal in the different cycles. Columella thick, about half the corallite width, trabecular and continuous.

Habitat:
Inhabit shallow reefs and rocky substrates, down to 30 meters.

Distribution:
Common Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Subclass Hexacorallia
Order Scleractinia
Genus Favia
Species Favia fragum

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Favia fragum (Esper)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Golfball coral [English]

Humann, P., 1993. Reef Coral Identification - Florida Caribbean Bahamas, (ed. N. Deloach). New World Publications, Inc., Paramount Miller Graphics, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida.

Roos, P.J., 1964. The distribution of reef corals in Curacao. Stud. Fauna Curacao, 20: 1-51.

Roos, P.J., 1971. The shallow-water stony corals of the Netherlands Antilles. Studies on the fauna of Curaçao and other Caribbean islands, 130.

Sorry, there are no other images or audio/video clips available for this species.

You can continue searching for Favia fragum on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia