﻿CATALOGUE 



OF 



MADREPORARIA 



Volume III. 



THE MADREPORARIAN SUB-FAMILY MONTIPORINJE 

 (MONTIPORA AND ANACROPORA). 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



The two genera dealt with in this volume bring the family of the Madreporidfe, as at present 

 limited, to a close. The iirst volume contained the large and important genus Madrepora, the 

 second the two genera Turbinaria and Astrceopora, while this third volume contains the allied 

 genera Moniipora and Anacropora, 



As will be explained in detail in the Introductions in this third volume, these five genera 

 form a natural group inasmuch as they are all colonies of polyps with porous walls. The 

 fusion of these walls forms what is called the coenenchyma. Whereas the walls in the three 

 genera Madrepora, Turbinaria, and AstrcBopora typically only fuse for a certain distance up, 

 each polyp having a protuberant, conical or crater-lLke wall rising above the level of the 

 coenenchyma, the walls themselves being only of moderate thickness, in the two genera dealt 

 with in this volume the walls are typically of great thickness, and the protuberant cone is 

 more or less obsolete. Again, whereas in the first three genera the primitive laminate 

 condition of the radial structures persists, in Montipwa and Anacropora this is largely 

 obscured, the radial and tangential structures together typically forming a spongy reticulum. 

 The first three genera may, therefore, be us'efully united ia the subfanuly MadreporiucE, in 

 contradistinction to the MontiporinEe ; the chief morphological differences between these 

 subfamilies, especially the comparatively enormous development of the coenenchyma in the 

 MontiporinEe, being referable to the above mentioned characters of the walls of their component 

 calicles. At the same time, it should be understood that individual Madreporine colonies 



B 



