Melithaea

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Genus of corals

title: "Melithaea" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["melithaeidae", "octocorallia-genera"] description: "Genus of corals" topic_path: "general/melithaeidae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melithaea" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of corals ::

| image = Melithaea ochracea1.jpg | image_caption = Knotted fan coral, Melithaea ochracea | taxon = Melithaea | authority = Milne-Edwards, 1857 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = See text | synonyms = * Acabaria Gray, 1859

  • Birotulata Nutting, 1911
  • Clathraria Gray, 1859
  • Melitella Gray, 1859
  • Melitodes Verrill, 1864
  • Mopsella Gray, 1857
  • Pleurocoralloides Moroff, 1902
  • Wrightella Gray, 1870 | synonyms_ref =

Melithaea is a genus of octocorals in the family Melithaeidae. Members of the genus are commonly known as fan corals and are found in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. The type species is Melithaea ochracea.

Description

Members of the genus Melithaea are arborescent colonial corals forming fan, bush or tree shapes. The axis or main skeletal "trunk" is jointed, there being nodes, flexible horny joints, separated by internodes composed of hard, calcareous material. The branches divide off at the nodes which are often swollen. The minute calcareous spicules in the flexible membrane called the mesoglea that covers the skeleton are called sclerites. The identity of these spicules is important for identification purposes and in this genus they are predominantly double discs and small disc-spindles, but also include plain spindles, capstans and small clubs. Members of this genus do not have the unicellular symbiotic algae Zooxanthellae in their tissues that many other corals do. Colonies vary in colour but tend to be shades of yellow, orange, red and brown.

Ecological significance

These corals are one of several genera of sea fan that can be hosts to a species of pygmy seahorse, the Denise's pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus denise).

Species

The World Register of Marine Species includes the following species in the genus:

| Melithaea acuta | (Gray, 1870) | Melithaea africana | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea akalyx | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea albitincta | (Ridley, 1884) | Melithaea amboinensis | (Hentschel, 1903) | Melithaea andamanensis | (van Ofwegen, 1987) | Melithaea arborea | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea atrorubens | (Gray, 1870) | Melithaea aurantia | (Esper, 1798) | Melithaea australis | (Gray, 1868) | Melithaea baladea | (Grasshoff, 1999) | Melithaea bicolor | (Nutting, 1908) | Melithaea biserialis | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea boninensis | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea braueri | (Kükenthal, 1919) | Melithaea caledonica | Grasshoff, 1999 | Melithaea capensis | (Studer, 1878) | Melithaea cinquemiglia | (Grasshoff, 1999) | Melithaea clavigera | (Ridley, 1884) | Melithaea coccinea | (Ellis & Solander, 1786) | Melithaea contorta | (Dean, 1932) | Melithaea corymbosa | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea delicata | (Hickson, 1940) | Melithaea dichotoma | (Linnaeus, 1758) | Melithaea divaricata | (Gray, 1859) | Melithaea doederleini | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea dubia | (Broch, 1916) | Melithaea ellisi | (Hickson, 1937) | Melithaea elongata | (Gray, 1859) | Melithaea erythraea | (Ehrenberg, 1834) | Melithaea esperi | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea flabellata | (Gray, 1870) | Melithaea flabellum | (Thomson & Mackinnon, 1910) | Melithaea formosa | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea fragilis | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea frondosa | (Brundin, 1896) | Melithaea furcata | (Thomson, 1916) | Melithaea gracilis | (Gray, 1859) | Melithaea gracillima | (Ridley, 1884) | Melithaea haddoni | (Hickson, 1937) | Melithaea harbereri | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea hendersoni | Reijnen, McFadden, Hermanlimianto & van Ofwegen, 2014 | Melithaea hicksoni | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea isonoi | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea japonica | (Verrill, 1865) | † Melithaea keramaensis | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea klunzingeri | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea kuea | (Grasshoff, 1999) | Melithaea laevis | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea linearis | (Gray, 1870) | Melithaea mabahissi | (Hickson, 1940) | Melithaea maldivensis | (van Ofwegen, 1987) | Melithaea mcqueeni | Reijnen, McFadden, Hermanlimianto & van Ofwegen, 2014 | Melithaea mertoni | (Kükenthal, 1909) | Melithaea modesta | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea moluccana | (Kükenthal, 1896) | Melithaea mutsu | (Minobe, 1929) | Melithaea nodosa | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea nuttingi | (Hickson, 1937) | Melithaea occidentalis | Duchassaing, 1870 | Melithaea ochracea | (Linnaeus, 1785) | Melithaea omanensis | (van Ofwegen, 1987) | Melithaea ornata | (Thomson & Simpson, 1909) | Melithaea ouvea | (Grasshoff, 1999) | Melithaea oyeni | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea philippinensis | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea planiloca | (Ridley, 1888) | Melithaea planoregularis | (Kükenthal, 1909) | Melithaea pulchella | (Thomson & Simpson, 1909) | Melithaea pulchra | (Hickson, 1937) | Melithaea ramulosa | (Kükenthal, 1909) | Melithaea retifera | (Lamarck, 1816) | Melithaea robusta | (Shann, 1912) | Melithaea roemeri | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea rubeola | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea rubra | (Esper, 1789) | Melithaea rubrinodis | (Gray, 1859) | Melithaea rugosa | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea ryukyuensis | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea sagamiensis | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea sanguinea | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea satsumaensis | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea serrata | (Ridley, 1884) | Melithaea shanni | Reijnen, McFadden, Hermanlimianto & van Ofwegen, 2014 | Melithaea sinaica | (Grasshoff, 2000) | Melithaea singularis | (Thomson, 1916) | Melithaea sinuata | (Wright & Studer, 1889) | Melithaea spinosa | (Kükenthal, 1878) | Melithaea splendens | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea spongiosa | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea squamata | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea squarrosa | (Kükenthal, 1909) | Melithaea stiasnyi | (van Ofwegen, 1989) | Melithaea stormii | (Studer, 1895) | Melithaea studeri | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea suensoni | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea superba | (Kükenthal, 1919) | Melithaea tanseii | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea tenella | (Dana, 1846) | Melithaea tenuis | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea textiformis | (Lamarck, 1815) | Melithaea thomsoni | (Broch, 1916) | Melithaea thorpeae | Reijnen, McFadden, Hermanlimianto & van Ofwegen, 2014 | Melithaea tokaraensis | Matsumoto & van Ofwegen, 2015 | Melithaea tongaensis | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea triangulata | (Nutting, 1911) | Melithaea trilineata | (Thomson, 1917) | Melithaea undulata | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea valdiviae | (Kükenthal, 1908) | Melithaea variabilis | (Hickson, 1905) | Melithaea virgata | (Verrill, 1846) | Melithaea wrighti | Reijnen, McFadden, Hermanlimianto & van Ofwegen, 2014 | Melithaea zimmeri | (Kükenthal, 1908)

References

References

  1. van Ofwegen, Leen. (2010). "''Melithaea'' Milne-Edwards, 1857".
  2. [http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=corals&id=174&menuentry=groepen ''Melithaea''] Marine Species Identification Portal. Retrieved 2012-02-22.

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melithaeidaeoctocorallia-genera