ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF Holimeda 



135 



Nodal medullary filaments fusing completely in twos, threes and 

 occasionally larger units; resultant units densely entangled and often 

 adhering slightly. 



Type locality. Matuku, Fiji Islands, South Pacific. 



Fig. 40b. H. macrophysa. Close-up of segments showing pitted surface which, macro- 

 scopically, often gives a stippled appearance to the segment. Specimen from 

 Mentawei Islands west of Sumatra, Pulau Stupai north of Sanding Island, 4 XII 

 63, Hillis-Colinvaux LH-29c. Scale bar is 1 cm. (Photograph by The Ohio State 

 University Department of Photography.) 



Habitat. Hanging from rocks, filling crevices, or growing more 

 openly as compact clumps; from approximately - 1-5 m to -50 m. 

 At Enewetak it formed relatively dense populations on flat surfaces 

 on the tops of pinnacles and on a buttress on the seaward site of 

 Mut Island. It was a very common species in the lagoon, and was at 

 times associated with H. gigas, H. distorta and H. gracilis 

 (Section X). 



Geographic distribution. Western and eastern Indian Ocean; 

 western Pacific, both north and south. 



This species is readily distinguished from all species of the genus 

 other tha^n favulosa by its friable nature, and the pitted condition of the 



