Astrocoeniidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

stony corals Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mo ...

. The family is distributed across the tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.Family Astrocoeniidae
Classification of Scleractinian (Stony) Corals. Retrieved 2011-12-23.

Description

Astrocoeniids include both hermatypic and ahermatypic ( reef-building) colonial corals, both with and without

symbiotic Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...

zooxanthella Zooxanthellae (; zooxanthella) is a colloquial term for single-celled photosynthetic organisms that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including corals, jellyfish, demosponges, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthell ...

e. The family is made up of both branching and encrusting species which can range in size from less than to more than across.

Species

The World Register of Marine Species includes the following

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the family: * '' Astrocoenia'' Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848 † ** '' Astrocoenia blanfordi'' Duncan, 1880 † ** '' Astrocoenia cellulata'' Duncan, 1880 † ** '' Astrocoenia dachiardii'' Duncan, 1873 † ** '' Astrocoenia decaphylla'' Duncan, 1863 † ** '' Astrocoenia gibbosa'' Duncan, 1880 † * '' Palauastrea'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1941 ** '' Palauastrea ramosa'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1941 * '' Stephanocoenia'' Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848 ** '' Stephanocoenia incrustans'' Duncan, 1873 † ** ''

Stephanocoenia intersepta ''Stephanocoenia intersepta'', commonly known as blushing star coral or small eyed star coral, is a species of Colony (biology), colonial Scleractinia, stony corals in the Family (biology), family Astrocoeniidae. This coral is found in shallow w ...

'' (Lamarck, 1816) - synonym, ''Stephanocoenia michelini'' ** '' Stephanocoenia maxima'' Duncan, 1880 † ** '' Stephanocoenia microtuberculata'' Duncan, 1880 † ** '' Stephanocoenia reussi'' Duncan, 1868 † ** '' Stephanocoenia tenuis'' Duncan, 1863 † * '' Stylocoenia'' Milne Edwards & Haime, 1849 † ** '' Stylocoenia maxima'' Duncan, 1880 † ** '' Stylocoenia ranikoti'' Duncan, 1880 † ** '' Stylocoenia taurinensis'' Michelin, 1842 † * '' Stylocoeniella'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935 ** '' Stylocoeniella armata'' (Ehrenberg, 1834) ** '' Stylocoeniella cocosensis'' Veron, 1990 ** '' Stylocoeniella guentheri'' (Bassett-Smith, 1890) ** '' Stylocoeniella nikei'' Benzoni & Pichon, 2004

References

Scleractinia Cnidarian families {{scleractinia-stub