Characters: Colonies are submassive and thick plates to encrusting. Corallites have thin to thick irregular walls. Paliform lobes are well developed.
Colour: Usually green, brown or mottled or with green or cream oral discs.
Similar Species: Favites pentagona, which has thinner walls and smaller corallites. See also Favia rotumana.
Habitat: Most reef environments.
Abundance: Usually uncommon.
Taxonomic Note: Favites russelli is a polymorphic species which may reasonably be included in the genus Goniastrea but not in the new genus Paragoniastrea Huang, Benzoni and Budd, 2014 alongside both Goniastrea deformis, which has similar morphological characters, and G. australensis which commonly forms sinuous valleys. Favites russelli and Goniastrea deformis both have well-defined corallites whilst G. australensis has centres in valleys which are often ill-defined.
Taxonomic References: Wells (1954); Veron, Pichon and Wijsman-Best (1977); Veron (2000a);
Identification Guides: Veron (1986a); Nishihira and Veron (1995); Turak and DeVantier (2011b);
