אלמוגי
שמונה על פי סדרות Octocorallian Orders |
Order Alcyonacea סידרת ריפיונאים |
Alcyoniidae is a family of leathery or soft corals in the phylum Cnidaria. A colony of leathery coral is stiff, hard and inflexible. It is composed of tiny polyps projecting from a shared leathery tissue. Members of the family may have two kinds of polyps; the autozooids have long trunks and eight tiny branched tentacles and project from the shared leathery tissue while the siphonozooids remain below the surface and pump water for the colony. They appear as tiny hollows or mounds among the taller autozooids. Different genera have different proportions of these two kinds of polyps. The autozooids only emerge when the colony is fully submerged. .Leathery coral polyps include zooxanthallae. The algae photosynthesize and produce sugars from sunlight. Periodically, the surface layer of the leathery tissue is shed. This seems to be a mechanism for ridding the colony of unwanted algal growth. (Source: Wikipedia) Sclerites include tuberculate, pricky spindles, clubs 6-8 radiates, oval and dumbbells (Source: Fabricius)