Nellia oculata Busk, 1852

Fig. 7 B–E

Nellia oculata Busk, 1852: 18, pl 64, fig. 6, pl 65 bis, fig. 5.

Nellia oculata – Winston et al. 2014: 161, fig. 13.

Material

MALAYSIA: MSL BRY013, Balik Pulau, Penang, small colony washed ashore on a sandy beach.

Description

Colony erect, articulated, forming a tiny dichotomously branched bush composed of quadriserial internodes with 4–7 autozooids each linked by chitinous joints, basally rooted by kenozooids.Autozooids slender, about 0.38–0.50 mm long by 0.13–0.15 mm wide; opesia occupying about three-quarters of surface, elongate elliptical in shape; gymnocyst widest proximally, tapering distally along sides of zooid, spines lacking; cryptocyst forming a slightly sunken, inwardly sloping crescent at proximal end of opesia, smooth-surfaced; various pores and depressions visible through opesia in basal walls of zooids, plus a low spinose, curved ridge on distal interior wall of zooid (Fig. 7C); ovicell not observed in studied material but described elsewhere as endozooidal (Winston et al. 2014). Avicularia tiny (Fig. 7E), located as pairs on left and right proximolateral gymnocyst of autozooids, inclined to plane of cryptocyst and directed proximally; rostrum rounded; cross-bar calcified, straight; opesia smaller than rostrum, with a slightly depressed cryptocyst; countersunk pore positioned on autozooidal gymnocyst beneath avicularium.

Remarks

This species has often been regarded as a junior synonym of Nellia tenella (Lamarck, 1816), but following Winston et al. (2014) we here retain Busk’s species name oculata pending a revision of Lamouroux’s material to test the synonymy. Ostensibly, Nellia oculata has a wide tropical and subtropical distribution, as well as a long fossil record, but there is need for a taxonomic re-evaluation using molecular data.