In this article we will discuss about the structure of Fungia with the help of a diagram.
1. It is the dried skeleton of a “mushroom coral”,which is found in the Gulf of California.
2. It is solitary, large and above with below.
3. The siphonoglyphs are absent and the theca is present on the lower surface only.
5. The skeleton is calcareous and stony.
6. It encloses a single large polyp having row of tentacles.
7. Mesentaries (septa) are in multiples of six and are connected with small synaptacula.
8. The life-cycle is strange in the sense that the young coral develops from Planula and is stalked and differentiated into a disc (anthocyathus) and a conical stalk (anthocaulus). The disc, later on, breaks up and becomes an adult. The remaining stalk once again develops a disc which later on separates off again.
9. Reproduction usually sexual, but the strange asexual reproduction occurs through transverse fission.
10. The tentacles on oral disc bear cilia which help in producing food currents for feeding during day.