Hidden cup coral
Phyllangia americana
Milne Edwards & Haime, 1849
Description:
Colonies form small encrusting groups of polyps, budding from a common basal coenosteum. Occasionally, corallites bud from the lower theca of a parent corallite, and even intratentacular budding can take place. Corallites cylindrical to trochoid and often closely spaced, the theca of adjacent corallites sometimes fused to one other. Largest known corallite 15.9 mm in diameter and 1 cm in height. Theca costate and granular, in some corallites the costae form discrete ridges.
Septa hexamerally arranged in five cycles, with six protruding and six somewhat smaller septa in the first cycle. There is a direct relationship between the diameter and the number of septa.
Columella trabecular, endotheca present.
Color:
All corallites bear a distinctive light brown coloration within the calice and on the upper theca. Lower theca and coenosteum white.
Habitat:
Attach to and encrust the underside of rocks, ledge overhangs and cave ceilings, down to 30 m.
Distribution:
It is one of the most common azooxanthellate corals in the western Atlantic. Occasional in Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean.