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Archive 1057: Daily Pix FULL SIZE
(For personal use only: NOT public domain)
Mmm, right click, add, set as background...

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Heteractis magnifica (Quoy & Gaimard 1833), the Magnificent Anemone. To thirty some inches across (a meter). Tentacles and oral disc of the same color, with a base/pedicle also colored... Typically purplish, but may be red, white/tan, brown, green or blue. Previously and in older literature often labeled as Radianthus ritteri (Hence this species is also often referred to as Ritter's or the Ritteri Anemone). Found widely in the Indo-Mid Pacific; East Africa and the Red Sea to Australia, S. Japan, to the Tuamotu Archipelago (French Polynesia). Huahine, Fr. Polynesia 2018
 
Heteractis magnifica (Quoy & Gaimard 1833), the Magnificent Anemone. To thirty some inches across (a meter). Tentacles and oral disc of the same color, with a base/pedicle also colored... Typically purplish, but may be red, white/tan, brown, green or blue. Previously and in older literature often labeled as Radianthus ritteri (Hence this species is also often referred to as Ritter's or the Ritteri Anemone). Found widely in the Indo-Mid Pacific; East Africa and the Red Sea to Australia, S. Japan, to the Tuamotu Archipelago (French Polynesia). Huahine, Fr. Polynesia 2018
 
Distichopora sp. Suborder Stylasterina: Characterized by having a thick layer of tissue overlying their skeletons. Their specialized feeding and defensive polyps are imbedded within star-shaped openings in their calcareous skeletons. Fr. Polynesia 2018
 
Suborder Milleporina, are the stinging or fire corals. Unlike the Stylasterines, their skeleton is only covered by a thin epidermal layer; and their defensive polyps arise from separate openings that encircle the gastrozooids (feeding polyps). Millepora is the single genus. As you study and observe corals and coral-like animals like the hydrozoans, you'll gain an appreciation for the term polymorphic or "many shapes"; describing the several physical forms a "species" can/does take dependent on nutrient and other growing conditions; sometimes heavily branched and delicate in appearance, other times more blade, fan-shaped and massive. The number of varieties of Millepora are in dispute. Veron states that there are at least 48 nominal species; an unknown number of  true species. More to the point for our discussion is the question of "how to tell when you're looking at a fire coral?" period. There's always the touch test; ouch. Most of the time, the colonies are green or yellow-brown (due to endosymbiotic Zooxanthellae) fading to whitish at the tips, and "soft", "hairy" and rounded in appearance. On very close inspection, the arrangement of almost microscopic stinging and eating polyps can be seen. Fr. Polynesia 2018
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