CLASSIFICATION OF FUNGIA
KINGDOM :- ANIMALIA ( Multicellular eukaryotic organisms)
PHYLUM :- COELENTRATA OR CNIDARIA (Tissue grade, diploblastic and acoelomate. )
CLASS :- ANTHOZOA OR ACTINOZOA (Only polypoid generation. sedentary, solitary, colonial.)
SUB-CLASS :- HEXACORALLIA (Tentacles and mesenteries in multiple of five or six.)
ORDER :- SCLERACTINIA (Stony corals with compact calcareous exoskeleton.)
FAMILY :- FUNGIIDAE (Solitary organisms with multiple mouths or a colony of individuals, each with its separate mouth)
GENUS :- Fungia
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
It is found in warm seas, generally in the Gulf of California.
HABIT AND HABITAT
Fungia is a solitary and marine coral.
GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF FUNGIA
- Commonly known as Mushroom coral.
- It is found in sizes from 5 mm to 25 cm in diameter.
- It is discoidal, mushroom-shaped. with upper convex and lower concave surfaces having thecae.
- Discoidal corallite contains numerous septa connected together by a calcareous rod, known as synapticula.
- Adult animal contains a single large polyp with numerous tentacles.
- Animal lies loose on the bottom of sea or fastened below by a stalk.
- Siphonoglyphs are absent. Study of Museum Specimens
- Life history includes cup-shaped planula which metamorphoses into adult. Fungia continues to give off ordinary buds throughout life.
- It has long fossil history. It originated in tertiary period and is living successfully.
IDENTIFICATION
The animal is mushroom shaped, has whitish septa and all above characters, hence it is Fungia.
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