Ellisella

Scientific name : Ellisella

Colonies are like large bushes, with very elongate, whip like dichotomous branches. Variable colour, red with white polyps or yellow, orange, pink, white with red polyps. Polyps can be all around the branches or they can be arranged in longitudinal rows. Polyps are contractile but not retractile, always visible like mounds on the surface of the branches. Colonies high to 1 m. Associations with shrimps like Periclimenes sp. 1, Hamodactylus boschmai, Hamodactylus noumeae, with gobies and parasitic ovulids. Among the large colonies the hawkfish Oxycirrhithes typus can be seen. Similar genera are Dichotella, with generally more close dichotomous branching (also well distinguishable by the sclerites), and Viminella having less branches.