A new cheilostome bryozoan genus pseudoplanktonic on molluscs and algae
Taylor, P.D.; Monks, N. (1997). A new cheilostome bryozoan genus pseudoplanktonic on molluscs and algae. Invertebr. Biol. 116(1): 39-51. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3226923
In: Invertebrate biology. Blackwell Publishing: Lawrence, Kan.. ISSN 1077-8306; e-ISSN 1744-7410, more
|  |
| Abstract |
The little-known bryozoan Membranipora eburnea Hincks is redescribed and designated the type species of the new genus Jellyella. The twinned ancestrula of this malacostegan-grade cheilostome places it within the Membraniporidae, along with Membranipora and Biflustra. Jellyella is distinguished by the presence of intricately branched processes (spinules) projecting into the zooidal chambers, and a calcitic skeletal ultrastructure of transversely arranged, elongate spindles. The "Gulf weed bryozoan, Membranipora tuberculata (Bosc), is also assigned to the new genus as Jellyella tuberculata. Both species of Jellyella seem primarily to encrust floating substrates: based on available museum material. J. eburnea usually grows on drifting shells of dead individuals of the cephalopod Spirula but can also be found as an epizoan of the floating gastropod Janthina and on algae; J. tuberculata is normally an epiphyte of Sargassum. Collections of Spirula shells from beaches around the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans are commonly encrusted by J. eburnea but very seldom by any other bryozoans. Jellyella is therefore interpreted as a rare example of a pseudoplanktonic genus among the typically benthic bryozoans. |
|
