''Meandrina meandrites'', commonly known as maze coral, is a species of

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

stony coral in the family Meandrinidae. It is found primarily on outer coral reef slopes in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

Description

''Meandrina meandrites'' forms massive hemispherical heads or develops into substantial flat plates and can grow to nearly in diameter. Some small colonies are cone-shaped and are not attached to the

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...

. These resemble young colonies of rose coral (''

Manicina areolata ''Manicina areolata'', commonly known as rose coral, is a Colony (biology), colonial species of Scleractinia, stony coral. It occurs in shallow water in the West Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, sometimes as small solid heads and sometimes as un ...

'') and may be found in sandy or muddy areas some way from reefs. The

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

s, the calcareous cups secreted by the polyps, are wide. The raised walls between the corallites are formed from fine but widely separated transverse ridges called septa and meander over the surface of the coral. There is a slight indentation running along the crest of the walls where the septa from adjoining corallites meet. The polyps are large but are only protruded at night when they cover and obscure the skeleton of the coral.

Distribution and habitat

''Meandrina meandrites'' is found in Bermuda, Florida, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas. It mainly occurs on the seaward sides of reefs but does also occur on back slopes. Its favoured depth range is but it occurs at any depth less than . It tolerates locations with high levels of sedimentation and turbidity. It is generally the coral most frequently seen in the deeper parts of its range.

Status

The

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

lists ''Meandrina meandrites'' as being of " Least Concern". This is because, although it is effected by coral bleaching, it is more resistant than some other species and usually recovers. It is also subject to coral diseases such as white plague and black band disease. Another factor that helps to maintain populations is the high level of recruitment of juvenile corals which is in contrast to the recruitment failures of the pineapple coral ('' Dichocoenia stokesi''). The chief threats it faces, as do other reef corals, are raised sea temperatures, ocean acidification and reef destruction. It is present in a number of marine parks which gives it some level of protection.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3322586 Meandrinidae Corals described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus