Valdemunitella dianae, Branch & Hayward, 2005

Branch, M. L. & Hayward, P. J., 2005, New species of cheilostomatous Bryozoa from subantarctic Marion and Prince Edward Islands, Journal of Natural History 39 (29), pp. 2671-2704 : 2675-2676

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930500124664
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03938784-FFF1-4414-FE5B-FD02FB1DFAF0
treatment provided by	Carolina
scientific name	Valdemunitella dianae
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Valdemunitella dianae View in CoL sp. nov.

( Figure 3 View Figure 3 )

Material

Holotype: St. 16 Marion Island (46 ° 51 9 S, 38 ° 04 9 E), 160–170 m, SAM A27314 GoogleMaps . Paratype: St. 3 Marion Island (46 ° 57 9 S, 37 ° 53 9 E), 135 m, SAM A27557 GoogleMaps .

Other material. St. 19 Marion Island (46 ° 44 9 S, 38 ° 02 9 E), 210 m, SAM A27520 View Materials GoogleMaps ; St. 28 Marion Island (46 ° 44 9 S, 37 ° 56 9 E), 240 m, SAM A27318 View Materials GoogleMaps .

Description

Colony an encrusting, unilaminar sheet. Autozooids elongate-oval, separated by deep grooves marking the incurving lateral walls; 0.5–0.65X 0.3–0.35 mm. Gymnocyst reduced, smoothly calcified; cryptocyst developed as a narrow, coarsely granular rim bordering an elongate oval opesia. Four stout distal oral spines present, the distal-most pair obscured in ovicelled zooids; an additional 9–12 slender, tapered spines evenly spaced around the frontal membrane, slightly curved medially. Avicularia absent in all four specimens. Ovicell distinctly bipartite, with a conspicuous longitudinal, median suture; frontal fenestrae, on each side of the suture, large, occupying most of the frontal surface of the ovicell, tapered proximo-laterally, with thickened rims. Vertical walls of autozooids deep, with multiporous septula.

Etymology

Named for Diana Gianakouras, leader of the University of Cape Town offshore sampling group.

Remarks

The type species of Valdemunitella , V. υaldemunita Hincks, 1885, was described from Napier, New Zealand. It has been recorded from a number of other localities in New Zealand, and from Sydney Harbour, New South Wales ( Gordon 1986). The few other species presently assigned to the genus are distributed in the New Zealand region, and northwards to south-east Australia. However, Valdemunitella has only recently been detached from the synonymy of Crassimarginatella Canu, 1900 , and it is possible that other species presently accommodated in the latter genus may prove to belong to Valdemunitella , which may then be found to have a far wider geographical distribution. All species of Valdemunitella have in common the medially sutured ovicell with paired frontal fenestrae. Valdemunitella dianae sp. nov. and V. fraudatrix Gordon, 1986 , from New Zealand, have a similar number of spines, but the ovicellular fenestrae of the latter are smaller in relation to the rest of the ovicell, and narrower than in V. dianae , and while Gordon (1986) reported large vicarious avicularia in his species, none has been discovered in V. dianae sp. nov. All specimens found were encrusting biogenic carbonates, namely worm tubes and bryozoans.