NO. 1 DURHAM, BARNARD: EASTERN PACIFIC STONY CORALS 59 



Genus SOLENASTREA Milne Edwards and Haime 



Solenastrea Milne Edwards and Haime (1848), Comptes Rendus Acad. 

 Sci. Paris, vol. 27, p. 494. 

 Genotype; Astrea turonensis Michelin. 



Solenastrea ecuadoriana Durham and Barnard, new species 



Plate 5, fig. 23 



The type is a single beach-worn specimen. Corallum subplocoid, 

 individual corallites small (average diameter about 1 mm), closely ap- 

 pressed to one another, at times united by a common wall, at other 

 times with a small amount of slightly pitted peritheca separating them; 

 colony formation by intratentacular budding ; upper surface of corallum 

 worn so that the original surface characters are not preserved at any 

 point, however, it appears that there were no costae and the calices prob- 

 ably were not exsert from the corallum mass ; septa in 2 complete cycles, 

 with part of the third present, usually with about 8 major septa reaching 

 the columella and 8 secondary septa extending half the distance to the 

 columella; septal interspaces not quite as wide as thickness of major 

 septa; in some calices the inner ends of the septa are definitely thickened 

 as they approach the columella (these thickenings might indicate the 

 presence of pali) ; septal faces highly granulated; dissepiments moderate- 

 ly abundant, averaging one-half mm apart; columella composed of 

 anastomosing trabeculae from the inner ends of the 8 major septa. 



Remarks: This species appears to be related rather closely to 

 Solenastrea fairbanksi (Vaughan) and particularly so to the variety 

 minor, but differs from the typical members of that species and the 

 variety by the considerably smaller calices and the lesser number of septa. 



Dimensions of holotype: Height of corallum 42 mm, length 70 

 mm, width 28 mm, diameter of a calice 1 mm. 



Holotype: AHF no. 3. 



Type locality: Sta. 22-33, La Plata Island, Ecuador, shore. 



Material examined: The type. 



