Annals of the South African MuseumAnnale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum . e-like, resembling ridges or crests. Polyps dimorphic. Scleritesof capitulum are tuberculated spindles, usually somewhat club-shaped with ill-defined heads. Sclerites of stalk are generally capstans <0,3 mm in length. About 47 species from the Indo-Pacific, usually in warm shallow water, andoften associated with coral reefs. See Verseveldt (1983) for a detailed revision ofthe genus, with a key and descriptions for the recognized species. Type species. Lobophytum crassum von Marenzeller, 1886; Indo-Pacific. Remarks Tix
Annals of the South African MuseumAnnale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum . e-like, resembling ridges or crests. Polyps dimorphic. Scleritesof capitulum are tuberculated spindles, usually somewhat club-shaped with ill-defined heads. Sclerites of stalk are generally capstans <0,3 mm in length. About 47 species from the Indo-Pacific, usually in warm shallow water, andoften associated with coral reefs. See Verseveldt (1983) for a detailed revision ofthe genus, with a key and descriptions for the recognized species. Type species. Lobophytum crassum von Marenzeller, 1886; Indo-Pacific. Remarks Tixier-Durivault (1960: 360) recorded Lobophytum crebiplicatum vonMarenzeller, 1886, and L. crassum von Marenzeller, 1886 (as L. crassospicu-latum Moser, 1919), without descriptions or figures, from Inhaca Island,southern Mozambique. Verseveldt (1983: 32) considered Tixier-Durivaultsidentification of L. crebiplicatum as a misidentification and considered thespecies to be confined to the western Pacific Basin. Several unidentified species SOFT CORALS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA 311. Fig. 31. Eleutherobia studeri (Thompson, 1910). A. An entire colony, 55 mm in length. B. Anentire colony, 90 mm in length. C. A single exsertile polyp, 8 mm long, tentacles Three cup-like calyces with retracted anthocodiae; 1,0-1,4 mm in diameter. G. Scleritesfrom the crown and points of the anthocodia. H. Calyx sclerites. I. Sclerites from the surfaceregion of the polyparium. J. Sclerites from the surface of the stalk. K. Sclerites from the stalkinterior. G-K. Scale bar = 0,1 mm. 312 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM of the genus are found on the coral reefs and coral assemblages at Sodwana Bayand Kosi Bay (northern Natal), 12-19 m in depth (Williams 1989a: 142; in pressb). Material representing these species is in the South African Museumcollection. The alcyoniids Lobophytum, Sarcophyton and Sinularia are three ofthe most abundant and conspicuous soft coral genera in the warm and shallowcoral
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