Research Article
ShallowWater Stony Corals (Scleractinia,Milleporidae, and
Stylasteridae) fromUtila and Cayos Cochinos, Honduras

Patrick Scaps1 and James Saunders2

1 Laboratoire de Biologie Animale, Universit´e des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq C´edex, France
2Coral View Research Centre, Sandy Bay, Utila, Honduras
Correspondence should be addressed to Patrick Scaps, patrick.scaps@univ-lille1.fr
Received 29 January 2011; Accepted 12 March 2011
Academic Editors: K. Cheng and M. Klautau
Copyright © 2011 P. Scaps and J. Saunders. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

The coral reefs of Utila and Cayos Cochinos located in the western Caribbean region (Honduras) were studied in Summer 2010
in order to acquire information concerning their richness in stony corals (Scleractinia, Milleporidae, and Stylasteridae) down to
18m depth. Ten sites in each location were visually surveyed. Fourty-six species and 12 forms of zooxanthellate scleractinian corals
belonging to 21 genera were observed at Utila and 44 species and 12 forms belonging to 20 genera at Cayos Cochinos. At each site,
3 species ofmilleporids and one species of Stylaster (S. roseus) were also observed. Four forms of zooxanthellate scleractinian corals
were new records from Honduras. Up to now, 53 species of scleractinian corals have been identified within the whole Honduran
Caribbean coast. They belong to 24 genera. This number represents approximately 93% of all scleractinian coral species reported
for the Caribbean.