International Journal of Marine Science, 2016, Vol.6, No.14, 1-10
1
Research Article Open Access
Particular Qualities of Identification and Taxonomy of Some Scleractinian Faviidae
Gregory, 1900, (Scleractinia: Faviina)
Yu.Ya. Latypov
A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology FEB RAS, Vladivostok, 690041, Russia
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2016, Vol.6, No.14 doi
Received: 29 Jan., 2016
Accepted: 27 Feb., 2016
Published: 25 Mar., 2016
Copyright
©
2016
Latypov, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Latypov, 2016, Particular Qualities of Identification and Taxonomy of Some Scleractinian Faviidae Gregory, 1900, (Scleractinia: Faviina), International Journal
of Marine Science, 6(14):1-10 (doi
Abstract
It is a brief history of taxonomy and identification of one of the most interesting groups of massive hermatypic corals
family Faviidae, characterized by placoid, cerioid and meandroid forms of corallum and having with Acroporidae and Fungiidae the
greatest number of genera and species diversity among all hermatypic Scleractinian. Describes terminology and morphological signs
under the definition and description of corals of the family.
Keywords
Faviidae; History; Taxonomy; Signs
1 Introduction and Brief History of Taxonomy
The Faviidae is among the most important families of hermatypic corals, having after Acroporidae, the most
number of genera and species among all scleractinian. Due to their abundance in the majority of reef biotopes
throughout the entire Indo-Pacific, they are present from the 18th century in the most of taxonomically important
collections. In one of the earliest taxonomic publications (Forskål, 1775) 23 scleractinian coral species from the
Red Sea were described, of which 8 species were attributed to Faviidae. The ubiquity and the great diversity of
these corals on the Vietnamese reefs (including unknown new species for science, Latypov, 2012, 2013), consider
particularities of their identification and taxonomy. The taxonomic history of this coral group has never been
simple and it still has many controversial points and ill-defined issues. The abundance and diversity of Faviidae,
as well as the broad variability of the morphology of these scleractinian and their skeletal structures, facilitated the
appearance of a great number of nominal species with extremely numerous, not always clear or well explained
synonymies.
The subdivision of the Scleractinian genus
Madrepora
, as well as many others, was initiated by Lamarck (1801,
1816), who introduced the following genera:
Echinopores, Explanaires, Monticularies, Astrees, Meandrines,
belonging at present to the family Faviidae. The first subdivisions of Faviidae, as it was not difficult to understand
from their names, were based mainly on growth form of colonies and corallites.
Ehinopores
and
Explanaires
had
mainly lamellar or folio forms of colonies with well-delineated corallites. Massive and ramose colonies with
stellate corallite cones are typical for
Monticulaires
. Representatives of
Astrees
have massive colonies with
distinct polygonal or round corallites, whereas
Meandrines
included all corals with corallites, arranged in
meandering grooves similar to convolutions of the brain.
Based on the interpretation of Lamarck, two well-defined genera were distinguished later, which were not almost
changed afterwards.
Echinopora
(Dana, 1846) and
Monticulaires
, later named
Hydnophora
by Waldheim (1807)
were distinguished on the basis of
Echinopores
and
Explanaires.
Later on Blainville (1830, 1834) and Dana (1846)
followed the same line, and the latter added two genera to Faviidae:
Caulastrea
and
Manicina.
The next important
step in the development of Faviidae classification was made by Edwards and Haime (1857). Their subdivision of
Astrees
and
Meandrines
genera (distinguished by Lamarck) into 8-10 independent genera in many respects
anticipated and determined modern views on taxonomy and the number of genera in the Faviidae family. At the
