Members of the family Poritidae are highly conspicuous components of the Kwajalein reefs, with some Porites species very common and forming the largest colonies of any coral species. Many of our IDs are uncertain, since species vary considerably in shape and color. While we have tentatively assigned names to some of the species, it would require a close examination of the corallites to properly distinguish several of them. The polyps of the Goniopora species resemble those of Alveopora in the Acroporidae family, but have 24 tentacles instead of Alveopora's 12. Several of the figured Goniopora species could easily be variations of some of the others.
