Dendrophyllia cribros, Milne Edwards & Haime, 1851

Dendrophyllia cribros

Milne Edwards & Haime, 1851

Fig. 2 View Fig

Material examined. SBU_MESCOR01, Iran, Larak Island , Persian Gulf, 26°53'N 56°23'E, depth ~ 67 m GoogleMaps , 2010; SBU_MESCOR02, Iran, Farur Island , Persian Gulf, 26°15'N 54°29'E, depth ~ 70 m GoogleMaps , 2010.

Diagnosis. Colonial, attached; colony with a single basal stem, stout branches budding from the corallum; corallites budding spirally on all sides of the large corallum, almost embedded in corallum; theca porous and rough (synapticulothecate); costae well defined; septa hexamerally arranged in four cycles in a Pourtalès plan; columella spongy ( Fig. 3a View Fig ).

Characteristics. Living colonies surrounded by orange-coloured coenosteum tissues; colony tall, upright with sturdy base, having several large axial corallites with short corallites bud ( Fig. 2 View Fig ); corallum bushy; branching extratentacular; some branches fused together; corallites distinctive and oval-shaped, having a greater calicular diameter (GCD) and a lesser calicular diameter (LCD); corallites widely spaced; lateral corallites wider in diameter than axial corallites, but shorter (see morphometric details of the specimens in Table 1); septa arranged with 38-50 (regularly 48) in four cycles ( Fig. 3 View Fig ).

Distribution. Type locality unknown. Reported from Japan (Cairns 1994), Indonesia ( Creuwels 2019), Korea ( Song 1988), and Western Africa (Cairns 1994). New record for Iran (Persian Gulf).