Genomic Resources for Imperiled Caribbean Reef‐Forming Corals (Hexacorallia: Scleractinia): Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of <i>Dichocoenia stokesii</i> , <i>Diploria labyrinthiformis</i> , <i>Oculina patagonica</i> , and <i>Stephanocoenia intersept

Coral reefs provide a wide variety of services essential to both marine ecosystems and human societies yet reef-forming corals are currently facing a multitude of global and local environmental stressors. Long-term monitoring of reef-forming corals is of utmost importance for understanding the response of declining coral populations to environmental insult, and for their restoration. This study is a part of a greater long-term goal that aims at generating genomic resources for imperiled corals in the greater Caribbean basin. To support the future monitoring of coral reefs using non-intrusive eDNA strategies, we have sequenced for the first time the mitochondrial genome of four species of corals, three of them inhabiting the greater Caribbean basin: <i>Dichocoenia stokesii</i>, <i>Diploria labyrinthiformis</i>, <i>Oculina patagonica</i>, and <i>Stephanocoenia intersepta</i> and examined their phylogenetic placement. The mitochondrial genomes of <i>Dicho. stokesii</i>, <i>Diplo. labyrinthiformis</i>, <i>O. patagonica</i>, and <i>S. intersepta</i> are 17,171, 16,905, 14,856, and 19,461 bp in length respectively. All four studied coral mitochondrial genomes contain 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 2 transfer RNA genes (tRNA), and 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rrnS and rrnL). In all four studied mitochondrial genomes, a long group I intron bisected the <i>nad5</i> gene. Additionally, <i>S. intersepta</i> has a second group I intron 942 bp in length that bisected the <i>cox1</i> gene, overlapping the <i>nad5</i> group I intron. The rrL gene in the mitochondrial genome of <i>S. intersepta</i> is also bisected by a 7259 bp intron. The phylogenetic position of the species with newly assembled mitochondrial genomes was examined using a Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analysis based on PCGs. These newly developed genomic resources (mitochondrial genomes) will support eDNA biomonitoring of reef-forming coral inhabiting the greater Caribbean basin.