Timwoodiellina natans (Wood et al., 2006)

Wood, Timothy S. & Okamura, Beth, 2022, Further species and range extensions of Amazonian bryozoans: chipping away at the iceberg, Zootaxa 5169 (4), pp. 381-391 : 387

Timwoodiellina natans (Wood et al., 2006)

Hislopia natans: Wood et al. 2006 , p. 108–110, figs 49–52.

Natanella natans: Wood & Okamura 2017 , p. 5 –6, fig. 3.

Material examined. NHMUK 2021.11 .23.10, from the Río Negro , municipality of Iranduba, 6 km SW of Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil, 3° 9.792’ S, 60° 3.821’ W (Site 9), collected 8 May 2018 by T. Wood and B. Okamura .

Remarks. A previous sighting of this species in Brazil was in Sao Paulo State ( Wood & Okamura, 2017). The geographic range also includes Thailand and Indonesia.

This species is easily identified from the brooding of embryos as individual outgrowths from the parent zooid ( Wood et al. 2006a). Once the young polypide is fully formed the outgrowth detaches and swims away under the power of its own lophophore cilia.

Timwoodiellina natans was originally placed in the Family Hislopidae based solely on colony morphology. When it became apparent that colonies brood their embryos instead of releasing microlecithal eggs a new genus was proposed, Natanella , under a new Family Natanellidae ( Wood & Okamura 2017) . However, d’Hondt (2014) had already reclassified the genus Natanella as a subgenus of Hislopia named Timwoodiellina . On the belief that the unique brooding structure in the species warrants further distance from Hislopia we propose to elevate Timwoodiellina to the full genus level. A recent molecular phylogeny of ctenostome bryozoans ( Zhou 2020) shows Timwoodiellina clustering with hislopiid species, so we now return this species to the Family Hislopidae .