Hood Coral

zooxanthellate

This is the only encrusting species of Stylophora known. Colonies reach a maximum diameter of about 25 cm, and mostly have a height of no more than about 2 - 3 cm. Colonies commonly support "nodes" which have the appearance of being incipient branches, though these projections usually remain domes of no more than 1 cm tall. On only two colonies of several hundred seen, have these grown into small, true branches. Calices are very similar to other species of the genus, and small, well developed calical hoods also exist, as in Stylophora pistillata. Each hood is usually located above its calice and slopes down over it, and appears to assist in passive sediment rejection. Because of these hoods and the encrusting morphology, this species is probably commonly mistaken for Stylocoeniella which occupies a similar habitat; however, the coenchymal projections are true hoods rather than spines, and their regular alignment makes the surface is much smoother than in Stylocoeniella. A Red Sea endemic, where it is common in the northern and central parts. The species prefers parts of reef slopes between 30 to 40 m deep, especially in clear water. It is not usually conspicuous, preferring crevices and other shaded parts. It may be seen immediately alongside Stylophora pistillata which in these habitats adopts an increasingly slender, branched morphology (Sheppard, 1998).