''Stylophora madagascarensis'' is a species of stony coral in the family

Pocilloporidae The Pocilloporidae are a family of stony corals in the order Scleractinia occurring in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Description Pocilloporids are colonial and most species are reef-building. They are very variable in size and shape, some being ...

. It is native to the tropical western Indian Ocean where it is confined to the coasts of Madagascar, growing in shallow water.

Description

''Stylophora madagascarensis'' is a

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 ...

species of coral forming clumps of slender, compact branches with blunt ends. The branches are up to in diameter. 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 (stony cups in which the polyps sit) are crowded and circular, with those near the tips of the branches often being hooded. The corallites have six septa (stony plates forming the wall of the corallite) fused to a central, style-like columella. The coenosteum (the coral's stony skeleton) is covered with tiny spines. This is a zooxanthellate species of coral, the tissues of which harbour single-celled

dinoflagellate The dinoflagellates (Greek δῖνος ''dinos'' "whirling" and Latin ''flagellum'' "whip, scourge") are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered algae. Dinoflagellates are ...

s living in

symbiosis Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

with the coral and providing it with nourishment. The polyps expand to feed at night and are retracted during the daytime. This coral is pale brown in colour, sometimes with pinkish bases to the branches.

Distribution

This coral is endemic to the coasts of Madagascar. It grows in shallow water, both on moderately exposed reefs and in more sheltered lagoons, where it tends to have longer branches.

Status

This species is common around the coasts of Madagascar but the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as " endangered". This is because the reefs around Madagascar are being degraded at such a rate that it is estimated that 58% of the habitat will be lost within 30 years (estimated to be three generations for corals). The chief threats faced by corals are associated with climate change, ocean acidification, increasing severity of storms and rising seawater temperatures, resulting in coral bleaching and an increased susceptibility of corals to disease. Its small total population size makes this coral more vulnerable to these threats than a more widespread species.

References

Pocilloporidae Animals described in 2000 Cnidarians of the Indian Ocean Endemic fauna of Madagascar {{scleractinia-stub