Star coral
| Star coral | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Star coral ( Astroides calycularis ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Astroides calycularis | ||||||||||||
| ( Pallas , 1766) |
The star coral ( Astroides calycularis ) is one of the stony corals (Scleractinia). It lives in the south of the western Mediterranean , on the coasts of the Magreb , southern Spain and southern Italy up to the height of Naples . Their preferred habitat are caves, overhangs and steep walls up to a depth of 30 meters.
The polyps have a diameter of one centimeter, the colonies usually only reach a diameter of 10 centimeters. Unlike most other hard corals, the star coral does not live in symbiosis with zooxanthellae . This means that it can also colonize dark habitats. The star coral lives exclusively from catching plankton .
Because of their striking color, colony shape and habitat, star corals are reminiscent of the hard corals of the Tubastraea genus from the tropical Indo-Pacific .
literature
- Steven Weinberg: Mediterranean , Delius Klasing Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-7688-0968-4
