©Anne Hoggett: Palythoa toxica cf., a solitary polyp at North Direction Island. Oral disc diameter estimated at 1 - 1.5 cm.
©Anne Hoggett: Palythoa toxica cf., a solitary polyp at North Direction Island. Oral disc diameter estimated at 1 - 1.5 cm.
Colours
Distinguishing features
Joe Rowlett provided the these notes through iNaturalist (7 May 2020): "Species IDs for Palythoas like this one are inherently unreliable until this group is revised, but I'd say this is closest to P. toxica. Diagnostic traits include a small size, marbled oral disc, absence of a white stripe on the dorsal directive (indicated here by the swollen capitulary ridge). The caveat is that there is an undescribed/unrecognized species that Reimer calls "P. aff. mutuki" that can look a bit similar to this, though it tends to be a bit larger and have an oral disc pattern more like P. mutuki, but with additional frosted markings. As per the name, this one is loaded with enough palytoxin to kill a person many times over."
Palythoa toxica does not appear to have been recorded in Australia (Atlas of Living Australia accessed 8 May 2020).
Size
- Size data has not been obtained.
Synonyms
Distribution
Web resources
References
- Walsh and R.L. Bauers, G.E. (1971). A review of Hawaiian zoanthids with descriptions of three new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 50: 161-180, . LIRS catalog number 90308.