Bryozoa of Floridan Oculina reefs
Author
Judith L Winston
text
Zootaxa
2016
4071
1
1
81
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4071.1.1
8ffe5a88-06f7-44af-95aa-5fd49e0302c4
1175-5326
260490
D47C792F-E91D-40A6-ABB7-FA7810578562
Genus
Bellulopora
Lagaaij, 1963
Bellulopora bellula
(
Osburn, 1950)
(
Fig. 3
;
Table 2
)
Colletosia bellula
Osburn, 1950: 188
, pl. 29, fig. 1.
Bellulopora bellula
: Lagaaij 1963a: 183
, pl. 4, fig. 2; Winston 1982: 134; Winston & Håkansson 1986: 20, figs 46, 47.
TABLE 2.
Measurements (in mm) of
Bellulopora bellula
(Osburn, 1950)
.
Lz
|
Wz
|
Lo
|
Wo
|
Lov
|
Wov
|
N Mean |
18 0.487 |
18 0.309 |
18 0.093 |
18 0.068 |
16 0.234 |
16 0.235 |
SD |
0.046 |
0.022 |
0.012 |
0.006 |
0.029 |
0.014 |
Min |
0.414 |
0.270 |
0.072 |
0.054 |
0.198 |
0.216 |
Max |
0.576 |
0.360 |
0.108 |
0.072 |
0.288 |
0.252 |
Material examined.
VMNH no. 70600; USNM 1283228.
Description.
Colonies small, unilamellar, encrusting calcareous substrata (
Fig. 3
A). Zooids oval, about 0.5 mm long, with very narrow gymnocyst surrounding frontal surface of 5–7 pairs of radiating kenozooidal costae with rows of slit-like lacunae between fusions. Orifice broadly cleithridiate (
Fig. 3
B, D), with small raised heterozooid on either side. Two oral spines. Ooecium hemispherical, closed by zooidal orifice, constructed of fused costae pertaining to distal kenozooid, with membranous frontal wall beneath, serving as ooecium floor. Ancestrula tatiform.
Remarks.
Osburn (1950) described this species based on material from the Gulf of California and Galapagos with 2–4 oral spines and avicularia. Floridan
Oculina
specimens have no mandibles on the avicularium-like heterozooids (
Fig. 3
B–D), their tips being membranous. However, zooid size and overall morphology are similar to west coast and Gulf of
Mexico
specimens, so the significance of other differences in heterozooid morphology is still unknown.
In another rearrangement of cheilostome phylogeny Ostrovsky (2013) has argued that
Bellulopora
should be recognized as representative of a suborder independent of Flustrina, its unique kenozooidal brood chambers having originated independently from a malacostegan-grade ancestor with many kenozooidal mural spines. His classification is followed here.
Distribution.
Western Atlantic: Cape Hatteras to Florida and Gulf of
Mexico
. Also recorded from the Pacific coast.