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The Extant Scleractinian Corals of New Zealand

Suborder Dendrophylliida Vaughan and Wells, 1943 — Family Dendrophylliidae Gray, 1847 — Genus Balanophyllia Wood, 1844

Suborder Dendrophylliida Vaughan and Wells, 1943

Family Dendrophylliidae Gray, 1847

Genus Balanophyllia Wood, 1844

Balanophyllia alta Tenison-Woods, 1880. Pl. VIII, figs. 1-3. Map symbol ⊁

1958. Balanophyllia alta Tenison-Woods. Squires, p. 70, Pl. 15, fig. 10-18, 21 (Synonymy.)

This is a solitary coral with a tall conical to cylindrical corallum up to 100 mm or more in length. There is a tendency for the basal third to be outwardly curved (Pl. VIII, fig. 1) from its point of attachment, which may be fixed either by a peduncle or a broad base. The calice is circular to oval, the walls thick and irregularly porous. The costae are irregularly arranged not always opposite the septa, but are readily recognisable and covered by scattered sharp granules. There are more than 80 septa, the primary and secondary septa extending to the columella, the quaternary and quinary uniting with the tertiaries. A well developed parietal columella is present which is spongy in appearance.

Approximately halfway up the largest corallum in the present series (Pl. VIII, fig. 1) there can be seen broken bases of nine smaller corallites. The characteristic granules of the costae have been worn down and show clearly the vermiculiform markings described by Tenison-Woods. Half the calice is broken away and it is not possible to give an accurate count of the septa in the present specimen. Balanophyllia alta is also fairly well known as a Tertiary fossil in New Zealand (Squires, 1958.)

Occurrence: New Zealand waters. No depth. Two young specimens taken alive, one large dead specimen (Dominion Museum, Coral Collection.) Cook Strait. No depth. One dead worn specimen (Zoology Department, Victoria University.)

Distribution: New Zealand.

Dendrophyllia japonica Rehberg, 1892. Pl. VIII, figs. 4 & 5. Map symbol ⊕

1929. Dendrophyllia japonica Rehberg. Gardiner, p. 127, Pl. 1, figs. 1, 2.
page 16

Dendrophyllia japonica is a branching coral, but the branches are irregular and not confined to any one place. Branchings occur from the outer surface of individual corallites. The corallites of the colony superficially resemble the solitary corallum of Balanophyllia alta, but the arrangement of the septa differs in the two species and the basal region of each corallite is usually straight not curved as in B. alta.

The present colony has been formed by branchings upon the outer surface of a large dead corallite with a calice 2.7 cm in diameter. Four of the corallites were living and range in height from 15.0 mm to 80.0 mm and their calices are from 6.0 mm to 30.0 mm across. The smallest corallite is 15.00 mm in height and 6.0 mm across the calice; the medium-sized corallite (broken from the main mass) is 5.0 cm high and 12.0 mm across the calice and the two large corallites are 7.5 cm and 8.0 cm in height and approximately 3.2 cm in greatest diameter. The external granular costae opposite the septa are well defined on the surface of the distal half of the corallites (fig. 4). The calices are round to oval in shape with an easily distinguishable compact columella of tightly twisted ribbon-like pieces. In the largest corallite with an oval calice the columella is elongate, flat and narrow (10 mm × 1.5 mm), in the other large corallite in which the calice is circular the columella is dome-shaped (3.5 mm × 3.5 mm approximately.) The columella is not visible in the two smaller corallites. The lateral surfaces of the septa are finely granular. In the two large corallites there are 24 septa of approximately equal size, in the medium sized corallite 12, and in the smallest 6.

The general habit of this colony, the size range of the corallites, and the arrangement of the septa is similar to that described by Gardiner (1929) for his larger colony of approximately 40 corallites taken off Three Kings Islands in 300 fathoms. The columella, however, of the present small colony is not as conspicuous or of so "spongy" an appearance as described by Gardiner and shown in his Plate 1, fig. 2.

An allied species Dendrophyllia boschmai van der Horst is known as a Tertiary fossil from New Zealand (Squires, 1958), but in this latter species the colony is flabellate in form and the arrangement of the septa is distinctive—the first two cycles are free and the lower cycles develop in the systems next to the secondary septa.

Occurrence: Off Mayor Island, Bay of Plenty, 200 fathoms. One specimen taken alive (Auckland Museum, Coral Collection.)

Distribution: Japan, New Zealand.