Acropora milleporais one of the most iconic and recognizable SPS corals on the reef and in the aquarium trade. However, within shipments of Australian Acro Millis we’ve secretly been receiving a lurker species endemic to Australian reefs,Acropora spathulata. Like the classic Acro Milli,A. spathulatahas characterisitc scalloped radial corallites which join together to almost look like chain mail. What makesA. spathulatastand out is that it has much thicker branches than Acro milli, especially at the base, and the scalloped radial corallites are even more pronounced. A few weeks ago we were speaking with Kevin Kohen of
LiveAquariaand discussing our observations about these apparently unique Aussie millis and that’s when he brought to our attentionA. spathulata, a species which is not recognized by Charles Veron in Corals of the World but it is by other leading corals taxonomist.
Most notably, In Staghorn Corals of the World Carden Wallace explains at length thatA. spathulatahas significant differences in morphology, genetics and the clincher is reproductive isolation of the species because it spawns at a slightly different time thanA. millepora. So far most of theA. spathulatacolonies we’ve seen resemble the color pattern of the inset image to the right but hopefully we’ll see some colonies like the one in the header image once the collectors realize thatA. spathulataandA. milleporaare different animals.
