''Oculina'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of colonial

stony coral 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 ...

in the family

Oculinidae Oculinidae is a family of colonial corals. Characteristics Members of the family Oculinidae are characterised by having the walls of the corallites (the cups which house the polyps) being composed of solid walled though rather fragile tubes co ...

. These corals are mostly found in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

Family Oculinidae: ''Oculina''
Horizon. Retrieved 2011-12-15. but some species occur in the eastern Pacific Ocean. They occur at depths down to 1000 metres.

Description

The colonies of ''Oculina'' have a straggly branching structure and are mostly pale yellow. The branches are slim, not exceeding in diameter. The corallites which house the polyps are widely separated. Their walls are composed of fragile, solid-walled tubes. Each

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

has 12 primary

septa SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

with fine teeth which partially project from the corallite wall and which are larger than the intermediate septa. Some species contain symbiotic

microalgae Microalgae or microphytes are microscopic scale, microscopic algae invisible to the naked eye. They are phytoplankton typically found in freshwater and marine life, marine systems, living in both the water column and sediment. They are unicellul ...

called

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 ...

Species

The World Register of Marine Species lists the following species: * '' Oculina arbuscula'' Agassiz, 1864 * '' Oculina diffusa'' Lamarck, 1816 - zooxanthellate * †'' Oculina halensis'' Duncan, 1864 * '' Oculina patagonica'' de Angelis, 1908 - zooxanthellate * '' Oculina profunda'' Cairns, 1991 * '' Oculina robusta'' Pourtalès, 1871 Robust ivory tree coral - zooxanthellate * '' Oculina tenella'' Pourtalès, 1871 * †'' Oculina umbellata'' Dennant, 1904 * '' Oculina valenciennesi'' Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850 - zooxanthellate * '' Oculina varicosa'' Lesueur, 1821 Ivory bush coral - zooxanthellate * '' Oculina virgosa'' Squires, 1958

References

Oculinidae Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Scleractinia genera {{scleractinia-stub