Mass medusae release and temporal reproductive segregation among the three Red Sea fire coral species.

The reproductive patterns of coral communities with many of the same species can vary geographically (Shlesinger and Loya 1985), raising interesting questions of natural selection and ecology. Species of the colonial cnidarian genus Millepora have received the common name "fire corals" due to the painful sting inflicted to humans by the release of venom from their stinging cells. Despite their popular name and some similarities with scleractinian stony corals of the class Anthozoa, fire corals belong to a different class of organisms (i.e., Hydrozoa) and are therefore known as hydrocorals. The genus Millepora has a circum-tropical distribution, incorporating about 15 known species (Razak and Hoeksema 2003, Lewis 2006, Amaral et al. 2008, Ruiz-Ramos et al. 2014, de Souza et al. 2017). In some localities milleporids may be rare while in others they may be abundant and serve as important reef-framework builders (Lewis 2006, Amaral et al. 2008). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.