Mussidae
Mussidae | |
---|---|
Mussa angulosa | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Class: | Hexacorallia |
Order: | Scleractinia |
Suborder: | Faviina |
Family: | Mussidae Ortmann, 1890[1] |
Synonyms | |
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Mussidae is a family of
Members of this family are found in the reef aquarium trade. Though popular in captivity, they are under threat from environmental destruction like coral bleaching. The Mussidae is one of the coral families most vulnerable to climate change.[2]
Taxonomy
The family Mussidae has long been recognised on morphological grounds but recent molecular analysis has shown that it, and several other related families, are polyphyletic, the similarities between the species having occurred through convergent evolution. Additionally, some traditional genera such as Favia and Scolymia have been found to be polyphyletic, with the Atlantic faviids and scolymids being more closely related to each other than they are to their Pacific relatives. A revised classification, proposed in 2012, places the Pacific species in a new family, Lobophylliidae and retains the taxon Mussidae for the Atlantic species. The family Faviidae is reduced to a subfamily of Mussidae, Faviinae.[3]
Genera
The World Register of Marine Species includes the following genera in the family:[1]
- Subfamily Faviinae Gregory, 1900
- Colpophyllia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848
- Diploria Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848
- Favia Milne Edwards, 1857
- Manicina Ehrenberg, 1834
- Mussismilia Ortmann, 1890
- Pseudodiploria Fukami, Budd & Knowlton, 2012
- Subfamily Mussinae Ortmann, 1890
- Isophyllia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1851
- MussaOken, 1815
- Mycetophyllia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848
- Scolymia Haime, 1852
- Variabilifavia Barta-Calmus, 1973 †
Description
Mussids are
Budding in mussids is always intracalicular, that is to say occurring inside the oral disc of the polyp, within the whorl of tentacles. The corallites are either separate, or arranged in series, and when the coenosteum is present, it extends beyond the wall of the septa ("costate"). The septal teeth are pointed and even, either arranged transversely to the plane of the septa or in random directions. With the exception of Scolymia lacera, the teeth are the same size in each cycle of septa.[3]
The columella is "trabecular", in that it lacks discrete individual corallites, because the budding of new polyps within the tentacles on the oral disc results in a series of mouths surrounded by a continuous whorl of tentacles; such intramural budding results in "trabecular" mouths, which are not individually encircled by tentacles. The resulting corallites that merge form the meandering valleys between costate septa typical of brain corals.[5]
In aquaria
Mussids are sometimes kept in reef aquaria but are very slow growing. They need to be kept well separate from other corals but are easy to care for. They are voracious feeders.[6]
References
- ^ a b "Mussidae Ortmann, 1890". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
- PMID 23950785.
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-1-4629-0502-7.
- ISBN 978-81-315-0104-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "Brain, Meat, Pineapple Corals: Family Mussidae". WetWebMedia.com. Retrieved 23 August 2017.