First record of two hard coral species (Faviidae and Siderastreidae) from Qeshm Island (Persian Gulf, Iran)

MAHDI MORADI (Department of Marine Biology, School of Basic Sciences, University of Hormozgan, P.O. Box 3995, Bandar Abbas, Iran)
EHSAN KAMRANI (Department of Marine Biology, School of Basic Sciences, University of Hormozgan, P.O. Box 3995, Bandar Abbas, Iran)
MOHAMMAD R. SHOKRI (Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, Tehran 1983963113, Iran)
MOHAMMAD SHARIF RANJBAR (Department of Marine Biology, School of Basic Sciences, University of Hormozgan, P.O. Box 3995, Bandar Abbas, Iran)
MAJID ASKARI HESNI (Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran)

Nusantara Bioscience
Vol. 2 No. 1 (2010)

Abstract. Moradi M, Kamrani E, Shokri MR, Ranjbar MS, Hesni MA (2009) First record of two hard coral species (Faviidae and Siderastreidae) from Qeshm Island (Persian Gulf, Iran). Nusantara Bioscience 2: 34-37. Two species of hard corals including Cyphastrea chalcidicum (Forskal 1775) (Faviidae) and Coscinaraea monile (Forskal 1775) (Siderastreidae) were collected from the south of Qeshm Island (Persian Gulf, Iran) in the late of 2008. These species were previously reported from southern Persian Gulf, Gulf of Aden, Southeast Africa, and Indo-Pacific. The literature review on the distribution of these two species revealed that these species were firstly recorded from the Persian Gulf. These findings further emphasize the high diversity of coral fauna in the Iranian waters of the northern Persian Gulf.