Siderastreidae 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 ...

of reef building stony corals. Members of the family include

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

algae called Zooxanthellae in their tissues which help provide their energy requirements.

Description

Members of this family are colonial, hermatypic (reef-building) corals. The corals vary in form and include massive, thickly encrusting, columnar, and irregular forms. The

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 ...

s are linked by flowing

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 ...

that have granular margins and that are fused in the centre to give fan-shaped or star-shaped groupings. The corallites do not project from the surface of the coral and have ill-defined walls formed from thickened septa.Family Siderastreidae
WetWebMedia.com. Retrieved 2011-12-18.

Genera

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 ...

in the family: * †'' Pironastraea'' d'Achiardi, 1875 ** †'' Pironastraea indica'' Duncan, 1880 * ''Pseudosiderastrea'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935 ** '' Pseudosiderastrea formosa'' Pichon, Chuang & Chen, 2012 ** '' Pseudosiderastrea tayami'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935 * ''Siderastrea'' de Blainville, 1830 – starlet corals''Siderastrea''
WoRMS ** †'' Siderastrea grandis'' Duncan, 1863 ** †'' Siderastrea radcliffi'' Faustino, 1931 ** '' Siderastrea radians'' (Pallas, 1766) – lesser starlet coral or shallow-water starlet coral ** '' Siderastrea savignyana'' Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850 ** '' Siderastrea siderea'' (Ellis & Solander, 1768) – massive starlet coral or round starlet coral ** '' Siderastrea stellata'' Verrill, 1868

References

Cnidarian families Taxa named by T. Wayland Vaughan Taxa named by Bertram Whittier Wells {{scleractinia-stub