Stylaster Gray, 1831

Cairns, Stephen D. & Zibrowius, Helmut, 2013, Stylasteridae (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Filifera) from South Africa, Zootaxa 3691 (1), pp. 1-57 : 20

Genus Stylaster Gray, 1831

Type Species. Madrepora rosea Pallas, 1766 , by subsequent designation (Milne Edwards & Haime 1850: xxii).

Diagnosis. Colonies uniplanar, bushy, or lamellate. Coenosteal texture variable, including reticulate-granular and linear-imbricate; coenosteum expressed in a variety of colours. Gastro- and dactylopores arranged in cyclosystems arranged on the branch edges (Species group C), uniformly on all branch surfaces (Species group A), or irregularly on three sides of the branches (Species group B). Gastropore tube single-chambered but may be partitioned by a ring palisade or a sphincter; gastrostyles present. Dactylostyles present, some species having dactyloglossae. Ampullae usually superficial with exterior efferent pores, but sometimes opening into upper gastropore tube.

Discussion. Eighty-two Recent (and 7 fossil) species are now recognized in the genus (Appeltans, et al. 2012), making it by far the most species-rich and morphologically diverse genus in the family. Cairns (1983b) divided the species of the genus into three groups based on the arrangement of their cyclosystems in an effort to facilitate comparisons among species. These groups were not implied to have phylogenetic significance.

Holocene Distribution. Cosmopolitan, 1–2010 m.