Metrarabdotos Canu 1914

Genus Metrarabdotos Canu, 1914

Type species. Eschara monilifera Milne Edwards, 1836.

Diagnosis. Colony rigidly erect or encrusting. Frontal shields of autozooids imperforate except for areolar septular pores on proximal and lateral margins. Primary orifice with distal shelf; secondary orifice having from one to three denticles on or just below the proximal rim; no oral spines. Avicularia adventitious, originating unilaterally from distolateral areolae; typically paired, less commonly single, on ordinary autozooids; present or absent on ovicell-bearing autozooids; commonly with more than one size and orientation on zooids in special positions in a colony. Ovicell fused skeletally with maternal zooid, nearly as large as the zooid; surface finely perforate between radiating ribs and margined laterally and distally by areolae; orifice of maternal zooid crescentic, two to three times as wide as that of ordinary autozooids, without distal shelf or proximal denticles (Cheetham et al. 2007).