The Agariciidae are a

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of reef-building stony corals. This family includes cactus corals, plate corals, and lettuce corals. Members of the family include symbiotic algae called

zooxanthella Zooxanthellae is a colloquial term for single-celled dinoflagellates that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including demosponges, corals, jellyfish, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthellae are in the genus '' Sym ...

e in their tissues which help provide their energy requirements. Cactus, Elephant Skin, Plate, Lettuce Corals of the Family Agariciidae
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Description

Members of this family are

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, hermatypic (reef-building) corals. The corals form massive structures, often of a laminar or foliate form. The corallites are linked by the closely packed

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which have smooth or finely toothed margins and do not fuse together. The corallites do not stand out from the surface of the coral and have ill-defined walls formed by a thickening of the septa.

Genera

The World Register of Marine Species includes these genera in the family: *'' Agaricia'' Lamarck, 1801 - most species form thin vertical plates, but in some, the plates are horizontal. *'' Coeloseris'' Vaughan, 1918 - monotypic, the single species is ''Coeloseris mayeri'', the tombstone coral. *'' Dactylotrochus'' Wells, 1954 - monotypic, the single species is ''Dactylotrochus cervicornis'' *'' Gardineroseris'' Scheer & Pillai, 1974 - monotypic, the single species is ''Gardineroseris planulata'', Gardiner's coral. *'' Helioseris'' - monotypic, the single species is ''Helioseris cucullata'', the sunray lettuce coral. *'' Leptoseris'' Milne-Edwards & Haime, 1849 - species are either crustose or laminar in form. They frequently have striations. *''

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'' Lamarck, 1801 - displays various forms, some being massive and others frond-like.

References

Scleractinia Cnidarian families Taxa named by John Edward Gray {{scleractinia-stub