Report of Newly Recorded Eight Scleractinian Corals from Middle and South Andaman Archipelago, India

Abstract

Eight species of scleractinian corals viz. Acropora azurea Veron, and Wallace 1984 belongs to the family Acroporidae, Favia vietnamensis Veron, 2000 belongs to the family Faviidae, Turbinaria irregularis Bernard, 1896 under the family Dendrophylliidae, Psammocora vaughani Yabe and Sugiyama, 1936 and Coscinaraea wellsi Veron and Pichon, 1980 belong to the family Siderastreidae, Halomitra meierae Veron and Maragos, 2000 under the family Fungiidae, Lobophyllia flabelliformis Veron, 2000 and Mussismilia braziliensis (Verrill, 1867) belong to the Mussidae family are reported as new distributional record to Indian waters from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This present paper deals with the taxonomical features, occurrence and status evaluation of these eight newly recorded species along with their previous distribution.