Jellyella eburnea ( Hincks, 1891 )

Taylor, Paul D. & Tan, Shau-Hwai Aileen, 2015, Cheilostome Bryozoa from Penang and Langkawi, Malaysia, European Journal of Taxonomy 149, pp. 1-34 : 9-10

Jellyella eburnea ( Hincks, 1891)

Fig. 4

Membranipora eburnea Hincks, 1891: 289 , pl. 7, fig. 5.

Jellyella eburnea – Taylor & Monks 1997: 42, figs 1–2, 4–13, 16–19.

Material

MALAYSIA: MSL BRY008, Pantai Chenang, Langkawi, on plastic and glass bottles.

Description

Colony encrusting, multiserial, unilamellar ( Fig. 4A, E ). Ancestrula twinned. Autozooids subhexagonal, rounded distally, twice as long as wide, 0.52–0.67 mm long by 0.29–0.33 mm wide; zooidal boundaries marked by a fine fissure; opesia occupying nearly all frontal surface, roughly ovoidal; cryptocyst forming a narrow, crescent-shaped shelf at distal end of zooid ( Fig. 4B ); gymnocyst variably developed,

when well-developed folded into rucks or spines projecting over proximal and later margins of opesia ( Fig. 4C ); basal walls with large uncalcified window; intramural buds present but rare.

Remarks

This species was fully described by Taylor & Monks (1997) who made it the type species of the new genus Jellyella , noting the pan-oceanic, tropical to subtropical occurrence of J. eburnea as an encruster of floating shells of the squid Spirula , and occasionally of the living planktonic gastropod Janthina . The pseudoplanktonic ecology of J. eburnea has apparently ‘pre-adapted’ it to the colonization of floating anthropogenic debris, especially plastic objects (e.g., Moyano 2005) but also glass bottles ( Fig. 4 D–E).

Figures

Fig. 4. Jellyella eburnea (Hincks, 1891). Pantai Chenang, Langkawi. A–C. Scanning electron micrographs showing variable development of the gymnocyst; MSL BRY008. A. Group of zooids. B. Slightly oblique view of zooids with poorly developed gymnocysts. C. Zooids with well developed gymnocysts. D–E. Colonies encrusting a small bottle photographed in the field. Scale bars: A = 1 mm; B–C = 500 μm.