Notes on Indo-Pacific Scleractinian Corals, Part 4 
A Second Species of Stylocoeniella 
John W. Wells 1 
In 1890 P. W. Bassett-Smith described a new 
species of Stylophora, S. guentheri, from two 
specimens dredged on the Macclesfield Bank, 
China Sea. His description (1890:362), al- 
though unaccompanied by a figure, is of a form 
so distinct that it cannot be confused with other 
species of this genus. To the writer’s knowledge 
this species has not been subsequently noticed 
or referred to. In 1955 an encrusting colony of a 
Stylophora- like form was collected at Eniwetok 
Atoll (Marshall Islands) by R. T. B. Iversen 
in the course of making a reference collection 
for the Eniwetok laboratory. At the time, the 
writer thought it might be a new species but 
hesitated because of the possibility that it might 
be merely the expanded base of one of the spe- 
cies of the normally ramose Stylophora. More 
specimens of the same coral were collected at 
Eniwetok lagoon in I960 by E. J. Kuenzler and 
L. R. Pomeroy, and in the summer of 1964 P. 
Spencer Davies collected several more at Addu 
Atoll (Maidive Islands). 
From the consistently encrusting growth habit 
and other characters it is now clear that these 
specimens represent a species quite different 
from the common forms of Stylophora, such as 
S. pistillata and S. mordax, and that Bassett- 
Smith’s recognition of its distinctness was cor- 
rect, although its relationships appear to be with 
Stylocoeniella rather than Stylophora. 
The writer expresses his thanks to Dr. W. J. 
Rees of the British Museum (N.H.) for provid- 
ing photographs of the type specimen of S. 
guentheri and to Dr. P. Spencer Davies of Glas- 
gow University for permission to use material 
collected by him. 
Family ASTROCOENIIDAE 
This familial epithet is used here in a broad 
sense pending modifications in its scope that will 
1 Department of Geology, Cornell University, Ith- 
aca, New York. Manuscript received February 15, 
1965. 
develop as the relationships of the genera now 
included in it are better known. Stylocoeniella 
is certainly closely allied to Actinastrea, and 
both genera are nearer to the Pocilloporidae 
than to the stylocoeniid corals. 
Genus Stylocoeniella Yabe and 
Sugiyama 1935 
TYPE SPECIES: Stylocoenia hanzawai Y. and 
S. 1933 = Stylophora armata Ehrenberg 1834. 
Stylocoeniella guentheri (Bassett-Smith) 1890 
Figs. 1-10 
Stylophora guentheri Bassett-Smith 1890. 
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), 6:362. 
? Stylocoeniella sp. Wells 1964. U. S. Geol. 
Surv. Prof. Paper 260-DD:1103, pi. 296, 
figs. 6, 7. 
Corallum thin ( 1-7 mm ) , encrusting, with 
basal epitheca. Corallites generally plocoid, cy- 
lindrical, 0.5-1 mm apart, united by solid or 
vesicular coenosteum the surface of which is 
covered with evenly spaced, minutely granu- 
lated spines, 10-15/mm (Figs. 2, 4, 5), but 
occasionally cerioid (Figs. 6, 7) with closely 
fused walls where crowded. New corallites arise 
by extratentacular budding on the surface of 
the coenosteum between corallites. Calices cir- 
cular except where crowded and polygonal 
(cerioid), 0.5-0.75 mm in diam, margins flush 
with surface of coenosteum. Septa 12 in num- 
ber, the 6 septa of the first cycle well developed, 
slightly exsert peripherally, relatively thick and 
extending from the corallite wall about half way 
to the axis, their inner edges dropping abruptly 
to join the columella deep in the calice. The 
margins of the primary septa bear four or five 
coarse dentations (Fig. 5), the terminations of 
trabeculae inclined upward and inward from 
the wall. In nearly all corallites the outer upper 
margin of one of the primary septa is elevated 
203 
