White Fan Coral

Appearance

This organism is a type of aquatic animals with cnidocytes to capture prey and a mesoglea jelly-like body i.e. jelly fish. Leptogorgia Alba is related to or has the following physical characteristics: instead of a medusa stage in their development, they release sperm and eggs that form a planula, which stick to substrates and grow, exclusively aquatic, mostly marine, they have cnidocytes, which are specialized cells used for capturing prey, bodies consist of mesoglea between two layers of epithelium that are mostly one cell thick, 2 forms: swimming medusae and sessile polyps, radially symmetrical with mouths surrounded by tentacles that bear cnidocytes, have a single orifice and body cavity used for digestion and respiration, multicellular organism, eukaryote (nucleus and organelles in membrane), body plan becomes fixed eventually, excluding metamorphosis, motile (most species), must ingest another organisms or their product to live.

Naming

Synonym: Lophogorgia alba

Distribution

Eastern Pacific.

Habitat

Sessile. Tropical.

Reproduction

Members of the class Anthozoa are either gonochoric or hermaphroditic. Mature gametes are shed into the coelenteron and spawned through the mouth. Life cycle: The zygote develops into a planktonic planula larva. Metamorphosis begins with early morphogenesis of tentacles, septa and pharynx before larval settlement on the aboral end.