Stylocoeniella Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935

Genus Stylocoeniella Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935 View in CoL

Type species. Stylocoenia hanzawai Yabe & Sugiyama, 1933 View in CoL , Holocene , off Japan .

Diagnosis. Colonial, ramose, massive or incrusting, cerioid to subplocoid. Budding intra- and extracalicular. Costosepta compact, nonconfluent to subconfluent, with acute dentations laterally. Costae generally short, sometimes absent. Pali irregularly present. Auriculae regularly or irregularly (in type species) present. Columella styliform to short lamellar, or made of irregular trabecular portions. Endothecal and exothecal dissepiments subtabulate and vesicular. Wall septoparathecal, with occasional pores. Synapticulae?present. Intercorallite pillars present which can be tall (up to around 1 mm tall in type species), or reduced to short knobs that appear as thickened portions at the peripheral edge of septa. Intercorallite pillars can be absent in large parts of colony.

Remarks. Study of original and topotypic material of the type species by one of the authors (RBS) revealed that the genus Stylocoeniella View in CoL has auriculae, indicating some level of correspondence to the stylinids. But based on the presence of (1) intercorallite pillars; (2) septa with acute dentations laterally; and (3) septoparatheca with occasional pores, the genus Stylocoeniella View in CoL is kept with the Pocilloporidae View in CoL .