Golfball coral
Favia fragum
(Esper, 1795)
Description:
Colonies massive; usually forming hemispherical domes, but occasionally forming small encrustations on the substrate.
Color:
Yellow to golden-brown and brown.
Corallites:
Corallites with 1 to 3 polyps, oval with protruding rims of less than 2 mm high. Coenosteum smaller than the valley or corallite width. Corallites with nearly 4 complete cycles, with 12-24 septa per cm. Thickness of the septa in different cycles unequal. Costae of neighboring corallites distinct, and the thickness of the costae are unequal in the different cycles. Columella thick, about half the corallite width, trabecular and continuous.
Habitat:
Inhabit shallow reefs and rocky substrates, down to 30 meters.
Distribution:
Common Florida, Bahamas and Caribbean.