Studies on Indian corals 1. Report on a new species of Montipora (scleractinia, acroporldae)

Abstract

The coral fauna of Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay around Mandapam in South India, is one which has received very little attention of the biologists. The author made an intensive collection of shallow-water Scleractinians from this area diu:ing 1964-1966, comprising about 100 species. One may naturally expect several new species in a large biological collection from an area which is little investigated. But curiously enough, the coral fauna of this area yielded only a few new species, one of which is described in the present paper. The rest of the new species in the collection will be reported on subsequent occasions.