species: Leptastrea purpurea in Lizard Island area: all known taxa (Lizard Island Field Guide)
Leptastrea purpurea


©Anne Hoggett: Leptastrea purpurea at No Name Reef near Lizard Island, southern channel. Identified by Dr Zoe Richards as L. pruinoisa before that name was synonymised with L. purpurea by Arregoni et al (2020).

©Anne Hoggett: Close-up of Leptastrea purpurea at No Name Reef near Lizard Island, southern channel. Identified by Dr Zoe Richards (as L. pruinosa prior to its descent into synonymy with L. purpurea), who notes: "Small, evenly-sized and tightly-packed corallites with tenatacles often extended during the day."
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Hexacorallia
Order Scleractinia
Family Scleractinia incertae sedis
Genus Leptastrea
Species Leptastrea purpurea
Status least concern

Colours

              

Distinguishing features

Adjacent corallite walls fused; columella circular to elliptical and composed of
more than 4 granules (Arrigoni et al, 2020).

NOTE: Columnellas in the colony shown here are not composed of multiple granules. It could be L. transversa - need to check with Zoe.

Size

  • Size data has not been obtained.

Synonyms

Distribution


©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution

Web resources

References

References that assist with identification

  • Arrigoni, M.L. Berumen, K.G. Mariappan, P.S.A. Beck, A.M. Hulver, S. Montano, M. Pichon, G. Strona, T.I. Terraneo and F. Benzoni, R. (2020). Towards a rigorous species delimitation framework for scleractinian corals based on RAD sequencing: the case study of Leptastrea from the Indo-Pacific. Coral Reefs, 39: 1001-1025. LIRS catalog number 90374.

Other references

  • Bishop, D.G. and J.R. Kenrick (1980). Fatty acid composition of symbiotic zooxanthellae in relation to their hosts, Lipids, 15(15): 799-804. LIRS catalog number 43.
  • Dinesen, Z.D. (1983). Shade-dwelling corals of the Great Barrier Reef, Marine Ecology Progress Series, 10: 173-185. LIRS catalog number 157.
  • View all references