Invertebrate · Stinging · Hard corals

Herpolitha Limax

Herpolitha limax (Esper, 1792)

syn. Fungia limacina, Fungia limax, Fungia praecursor, Fungia weberi, Haliglossa foliosa, Haliglossa interrupta +19 more

< 45 cm1-30 mCITES IILeast Concern

861

Herpolitha is a monotypic genus of mushroom corals in the family Fungiidae. The sole member of the genus is Herpolitha limax, commonly known as the tongue, slipper, mole, or striate boomerang coral. It is a free-living species and is indigenous to reefs and lagoons in the Indo-Pacific region.

Herpolitha limax exhibits an elongated structure with rounded ends and a single, central, axial furrow that spans almost the entire length. The furrow contains numerous distinct slit-like mouths, while other less prominent mouths are irregularly spaced throughout the colony. The primary septa are densely toothed with fine spines and do not extend to the colony's edge. The costae are low and feature crowded, blunt teeth. Occasionally, the furrow may fork, forming a "Y," "T," or even an "X" shape. This coral can reach a length of 45 cm (18 in) or longer and typically displays various shades of gray, brown, or greenish-brown.

Herpolitha limax is native to the Indo-Pacific region, with its habitat ranging from East Africa and the 🌊 Red Sea to 🇦🇺 Australia, 🇮🇩 Indonesia, Papua 🇵🇬 New Guinea, and the South Central Pacific. It can be found on reef slopes and in lagoons, often in close proximity to Fungia spp., at depths of around 30 meters (98 ft).

Herpolitha limax is a colonial, free-living, zooxanthellate coral species. It is susceptible to bleaching under stressful conditions, resulting in corals appearing white after expelling their symbionts. During a period of high water temperature in 🇹🇭 Thailand in June 2010, bleaching was widespread, affecting 52% of the corals of this species, along with many other types of mushroom corals. However, by the following February, they seemed to have recovered, with no signs of thermal-induced bleaching and a species composition similar to that prior to the bleaching event.

Herpolitha limax boasts a vast range and is a common species in suitable habitats. The population trend is uncertain, but this coral is harvested for the reef aquarium trade, with over 2,000 specimens collected in 2005. While corals face threats associated with climate change, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified the conservation status of this species as "least concern."

Why it's threatened

Residential & commercial development

Housing & urban areas · Commercial & industrial areas · Tourism & recreation areas

Transportation & service corridors

Shipping lanes

Biological resource use

Intentional use: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest] · Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest] · Motivation Unknown/Unrecorded

Human intrusions & disturbance

Recreational activities

Invasive species, genes & disease

Unspecified species

Pollution

Type Unknown/Unrecorded · Soil erosion, sedimentation · Ozone

Climate change & severe weather

Temperature extremes · Storms & flooding

This species is moderately susceptible to bleaching and has a low susceptibility to disease. It was found to commonly bleach in Koh Tao, Thailand (Hoeksema et al. 2012).

The collection of this species for the aquarium trade may lead to overharvest and localised reductions in abundance, especially for populations of naturally rare species (Bruckner and Borneman 2006). However, the wild collection of corals is highly selective and considered low impact in the long-term relative to other activities such as coral mining and dynamite fishing (Green and Shirley 1999, Pratchett et al. 2020).

The most critical threat for this species, like for most coral species, is the extensive degradation and reduction of coral-reef habitat because of a combination of local and global threats (Hughes et al. 2017, Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2017, Donovan et al. 2021). The increasing threats from climate change are being further compounded by additional local stressors, such as pollution and overfishing (Knowlton and Jackson 2008, Lamb et al. 2018, MacNeil et al. 2019, Donovan et al. 2021).

Generally, the biggest threat to the persistence of corals is climate change (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2017, Hughes et al. 2017, Sully et al. 2019), and more specifically - ocean warming and marine heatwaves that are leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of events of anomalously high water temperatures (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2019, Laufkötter et al. 2020). Under anomalously high temperatures, the symbiotic relationship between corals and their photosynthetic symbionts is disrupted, and many corals begin to bleach (Glynn 1996, Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 1999, Warner et al. 1999, Loya et al. 2001). Mass bleaching events resulting from thermal stress have become increasingly common in the last two decades and may lead to widespread coral mortality and changes in overall reef community over large areas (Loya et al. 2001, Graham et al. 2015, Hughes et al. 2018, Safaie et al. 2018, Stuart-Smith et al. 2018, McClanahan et al. 2019, Sully et al. 2019).

Superimposed on thermal stress and bleaching are additional stressors that can either directly threaten corals or exacerbate coral mortality after thermal stress (Kennedy et al. 2013, MacNeil et al. 2019, Abelson et al. 2020, Donovan et al. 2021, Knowlton et al. 2021). For example, increasing number of storms per season, overfishing, high levels of nutrients, and other kinds of pollution are steadily increasing in magnitude and threatening coral reefs (Wiedenmann et al. 2013, Zaneveld et al. 2016, MacNeil et al. 2019, Donovan et al. 2020). Moreover, in some localities, increased amounts of outbreaks of the corallivorous sea star, crown of thorns, can cause substantial damage to the reef, contributing to the overall decline and reef destruction (Saponari et al. 2015, Pratchett et al. 2017).

The prevalence of coral disease is also rising (Aronson and Precht 2001, Rosenberg and Loya 2004, Sutherland et al. 2004, Weil et al. 2012, Maynard et al. 2015), especially in the Caribbean (Aronson and Precht 2001, Precht et al. 2016, Aeby et al. 2019, Alvarez-Filip et al. 2019, Muller et al. 2020). The increasing spatial spread and extent of diseases are associated with ocean warming (Muller et al. 2008, Ruiz-Moreno et al. 2012, Randall and van Woesik 2015) and additional anthropogenic stressors (Vega Thurber et al. 2014, Maynard et al. 2015). The escalating impacts of global warming alongside the ongoing increases in local anthropogenic stressors and diseases are causing fundamental changes to coral reefs and place entire reef systems at a high risk of collapse.