NO. 1 DURHAM, BARNARD: EASTERN PACIFIC STONY CORALS 3 



Galapagos faunas ; the Panamic fauna consists of 50 species in 24 genera 

 of which 14 species are common to the Galapagos area; the Galapagos 

 fauna totals 28 species, of which 13 have not been recorded elsewhere. 



Twenty-seven of the listed species belong to the hermatypic group of 

 corals — that is, forms which are usually considered as being able to form 

 reefs under the proper conditions. The hermatypic species belong to the 

 genera Jgaricia, CycloseriSj LeptoseriSj Montipora, PavonOj Pocillopora, 

 PoriteSj Psammocora (Stephanaria), Solenastrea, and Tubastrea. In 

 contrast, Vaughan (1907) lists 54 species of hermatypic corals from the 

 Hawaiian Islands and Laysan. Thus it is apparent that either the East- 

 ern Pacific coral fauna is impoverished with respect to the hermatypic 

 corals, or else that the collecting has been highly inadequate. In this last 

 respect it is to be noted that as yet there have not been any extensive 

 coral reefs recorded, although Durham (1947, pp. 11-12) recorded the 

 occurrence of a few living reefs and some fossil ones within the Gulf of 

 California area. 



The Hawaiian hermatypic genera Psammocora («.), Leptastrea, 

 Cyphastrea, Coelastrea, Favia, Fungia^ and Alveopora have not yet been 

 reported from the Eastern Pacific. Of these, Favia is known from Brazil, 

 the Red Sea, the Indo-Pacific, and fossil in the early Tertiary of Cali- 

 fornia (Durham, 1947, p. 7), so that it appears possible, if not probable,, 

 that it will eventually be discovered here. The genus Montipora, which 

 is well represented in the Hawaiian region, is recorded from the Gulf 

 of California area on the basis of a single specimen described by Verrill. 

 The species has not been re-collected since and there may be some doubt 

 as to its origin. The genera Pocillopora, Leptoseris, Psammocora (Ste- 

 phanaria), Pavona, PoriteSj and Tubastrea are well represented, at least 

 in number of species, in both the Hawaiian and Eastern Pacific areas. 



With respect to the absence of coral reefs on the Pacific shores of 

 the Americas and the adjacent islands, it may possibly be more apparent 

 than real. During the various trips of the Velero III and Velero IF, 

 no special effort has been made to collect corals, and the resultant 

 material has come in merely as part of the general collections. It is 

 notable that the species of all hermatypic genera except Pocillopora are 

 represented in the Velero III and Velero IV collections by small, 

 usually fragmentary specimens, and that the genus Porites which is 

 very abundant in the Gulf of California area, and apparently forms 

 reefs there (Durham, 1947, p. 11), is represented by only 9 specimens. 

 Of the four species of Pocillopora present in the collections, only two 

 are represented by more than two or three specimens, and these two 

 species {P. robusta, and P. damicornis var. cespitosa are represented 

 mostly by specimens collected from the intertidal zone by shore parties. 



