Grooved brain coral
Diploria labyrinthiformis
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Description:
Colonies form hemispherical heads, up to 1.2 m in diameter. The surfaces of the colonies have deep, often narrow, polyp bearing valleys, which are separated by broad ridges with wide, conspicuous trough-like grooves. Width and depth of the grooves vary greatly from colony to colony, but the grooves are always obvious and usually make the ridge appear as two. The costae between adjacent corallites are discontinuous, and all costae are equal in thickness. Valleys are highly convoluted and often interconnected.
Color:
Tan to yellow-brown to brown to brownish gray.
Corallites:
Septa in more than 3 complete cycles. Thickness of the septa equal in the different cycles, with 12-24 septa per cm. Columella continuous between the corallites centers, thick, occupying half of the corallite width.
Habitat:
Inhabit the reef flat and reef slope, down to 40 m.
Distribution:
Common to occasional in Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean.