Coscinaraea monile
Forskål, 1775
Description: Colonies are usually encrusting or dome-shaped. Calices are monocentric, up to 7 millimetres diameter, or form short valleys. Septa are even and finely serrated, giving colonies a smooth surface.
Color: Usually uniformly grey, sometimes tan, brown, or mottled colours.
Habitat: Most reef environments.
Abundance: Common in the western Indian Ocean, uncommon in the central Indo-Pacific.
Similar Species: Distinctive and unlike other Coscinaraea.
Source reference: Veron (2000). Taxonomic reference: Scheer and Pillai (1983). Identification guides: Sheppard and Sheppard (1991), Nishihira and Veron (1995), Coles (1996).
This species seldom forms colonies larger than this. Pemba Island, Tanzania Photograph: Charlie Veron
Usual surface appearance. Sinai Peninsula, Egypt Photograph: Charlie Veron
Usual surface appearance. Sinai Peninsula, Egypt Photograph: Charlie Veron
Skeletal detail. Corallite detail. Drawing: Geoff Kelly