Micromussa pacificais a name that we’ve all been waiting for to identify an undescribed coral for nearly a decade. Ever since the small ‘Indonesian Scolymia’ popped up on the radar of reefers, it’s gone by many names but we all knew that this coral was neither aScolymia(=Homophyllia), and definitely not ‘Acan Maxima‘ which is endemic to the Red Sea and Middle East.
The newly mintedMicromussa pacificajoins the freshly reassignedMicromussa lordhowensisinto a genus which is growing ever larger to accomodate some of our favorite LPS corals. Despite its superficial resemblance to our belovedHomophyllia australisin both colors and shape, the similarity is only ‘skin’ deep.
Underneath the prodigious tissue ofMicromussa pacificathe skeletal features of this coral differ greatly from the characteristics ofHomophyllia.Micromussa pacificais most often encountered in a solitary form with corallites maxing out at around two inches across, but usually much smaller.
The rare specimen ofMicromussa pacificacan also be found with two or three corallites, but rarely we encounter small colonies which is more reminiscent of the colonies we see in ‘classic’Micromussaas well asM. lordhowensis. The new reclassification ofMicromussa pacificais part of paper by Arrigoni et. al. 2016 which is currently in press.
It’s very exciting to see so much activity in the space of coral taxonomy, with the work by many researchers outlining even more species diversity in this space than we ever realized. Furthermore, we are beyond tired of calling the Indo Scolie by ‘Acan Maxima’ with air quotes every time we try to discuss this coral with someone, andMicromussa pacificais such a better fitting name.
