Monasteria Microporous Coral

zooxanthellate

Encrusting sheets, tending to develop thick plates. The tuberculae are small, ranging in size from about 3 mm down to the diameter of the calices (.5 mm). There is a fairly wide variation in tuberculae size: some specimens could be mistaken for M. verrucosa, while others have small and widely dispersed tuberculae which appear as small beads on a fairly smooth surface (Sheppard, 1998). Colonies are massive or are unifacial or bifacial thick plates. Corallites are mostly immersed. The reticulum is covered with papillae and/or tuberculae. Colour: pale brown or pink with pink or white margins. Abundance: common on reef slopes (Veron, 1986). Encrusting lumpy sheets with tiny, sunken corallites; surface covered with rounded, irregular tubercles. Habitat: reef slopes (Richmond, 1997).