Conopora Moseley 1879

Genus Conopora Moseley, 1879

Conopora Moseley, 1879: 503.—Boschma, 1956a: F100.—Cairns, 1983a: 128; 1983b: 489–490; 1991: 71; 1992, 540, 544 (key).

Type Species. Conopora tenuis Moseley, 1879 (= C. laevis (Studer, 1878)), by monotypy.

Diagnosis. Colonies usually uniplanar and firmly attached, however one species (C. adeta Cairns, 1987) is bushy and free living. Corallum shape often influenced by commensal polynoid gall tube. Coenosteal texture usually linear-imbricate but may be linear-granular, and invariably white. Gastro- and dactylopores arranged in cyclosystems, which are sympodially arranged on branch edges, uniformly distributed on all branch surfaces, tetraserially arranged, or unifacially arranged on anterior face. Gastropore tubes double-chambered, the chambers partitioned by a gastropore ring constriction. Gastro- and dactylostyles absent. Ampullae both superficial and internal, efferent pores apical or opening within upper gastropore chamber.

Discussion. The genus was revised and a table of comparisons of most species was given by Cairns (1991). There are now known to be 11 Recent species in the genus (Appeltans, et al. 2012), including the two new species described herein, and two fossil species. These are the first records of this genus from South Africa.

Holocene Distribution. Indo-West Pacific, Subantarctic, Antarctic, 110–2355 m.