Ecology of the Reef‐builders of Tahiti.
1928; Zoological Society of London; Volume: 98; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1469-7998.1928.tb07166.x
ISSN0370-2774
Autores Tópico(s)Marine animal studies overview
ResumoLittle is known of t h e distribution of corals in the archipelagoes of the South-Eastern Pacific, out into the ocean, except t h a t this fauna becomes progrebsively poorer to t h e eastwards.Mr. F. A. Potts informs me t h a t Mayor estimated t h e coral fauna ofSamoa a t only two-thirds of t h a t of Northern Australia, though eleven genera which are absent frorn Tahiti are found in Samoa.This is what would be expected from t h e fact t h a t t h e main surface curreiits are frorn east t o west, directly against the spread of coral larvz?frorn the centres of distribution in the Malayan and Australian regions.N o species are derived from t h e Pacific side of the isthmus of Panama, where the coral fauna is at a vanishing point ; even the greatly restricted fauna of t h e reefless M;irquesas is a remnant of that of the Western Pacific, with no resemblance to that of Panama.Coming as I did from t h e Red Sea, the fewness of the Tahitian coral species impressed me strongly.It is not merelx a matter of a reduction of species, but of the absence of whole genera, and especially of the A s t m i d a , The following list, are probably complete, or nearly so :-Those marked F are recorded from Fiji (or Rotuma), those marked S from Samoa.The more important reef-builders are marked with a n asterisk.A. Sixteen Indo-
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