Plesiastrea versipora (Lamarck, 1816)

Amjad, Farah, Ahusan, Mohamed, Amir, Hana, de Villiers, Nina M, Gress, Erika, Mah, Christopher L, Naeem, Shafiya, Rico-Seijo, Nuria, Samaai, Toufiek, Afzal, Maryiam S, Woodall, Lucy C & Stefanoudis, Paris V, 2024, An underwater imagery identification guide for shallow, mesophotic and deep-sea benthos in Maldives, Biodiversity Data Journal 12, pp. e 120128-e 120128 : e120128-

Plesiastrea versipora (Lamarck, 1816)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Taxon: scientificName: Plesiastrea versipora ; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Cnidaria; class: Anthozoa-Hexacorallia; order: Scleractinia ; family: Incerta saedis; genus: Plesiastrea ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Lamarck, 1816); Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; country: Maldives; locality: North Male’, Vaavu, Laamu, Huvadhu ; minimumDepthInMeters: 10; maximumDepthInMeters: 30; locationRemarks: Nekton Maldives Mission; Identification: identifiedBy: Farah Amjad, Paris Stefanoudis, Mariyam Shidha Afzal, Hana Amir; dateIdentified: 2022, 2023; identificationRemarks: Identified only from imagery; Event: samplingProtocol: Submersible OR Remotely Operated Vehicle OR Snorkel; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Human observation

Notes

Massive encrusting colonies. Multiple colour variants mostly beige to brown-greens. Paliform lobes form a neat circle around small columellae. Colony size ~ 11 cm in the longest dimension. Only this species of Plesiastrea has been officially recorded in Maldivian waters (Fig. 88).