Marcusadorea pinheroi, Almeida, Ana C. S., Souza, Facelucia B. C., Menegola, Carla & Vieira, Leandro M., 2017

Almeida, Ana C. S., Souza, Facelucia B. C., Menegola, Carla & Vieira, Leandro M., 2017, Diversity of marine bryozoans inhabiting demosponges in northeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 4290 (2), pp. 281-323 : 303-305

Marcusadorea pinheroi n. sp.

( Figs. 62–65 ; Table 6)

Material examined. Holotype: UFBA 1186 , Camamu Bay , 13°53’S, 38°59’W, 18–20 m, coll. October 2012 (on sponge Timea sp.) . Paratype: UFBA 1946 , Salvador, Bahia , Brazil, 12°57’S, 38°21’W, intertidal, coll. April 2012. Type locality. Camamu Bay , Bahia State, NE Brazil .

Etymology. Named after Ulisses Pinheiro (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco), in recognition of his contribution to the knowledge of Brazilian biodiversity.

Description. Colony encrusting, spot-like, unilaminar. Colony pale yellow. Zooids semi-erect, large, globular, limited by raised distinct lateral walls. Frontal shield heavily calcified, granular, with small nodules of calcification, frontally punctured by 20–24 pseudopores except at the peristomial calcification that remains imperforate; marginally with a distinct row of 12–20 pores. Primary orifice large, hoof-shaped, with a pair of small lateral triangular condyles. No oral spines. Secondary orifice raised, forming a well-developed tubular peristome with circular aperture that obscures the primary orifice, with same calcification as frontal shield but without pores; aperture oval in ovicelled zooids. Avicularia absent. Ovicell prominent; ooecia globose, 0.396 mm long and 0.649 mm wide, same granular, nodular and porous calcification as in autozooids, opening into the peristome above zooidal operculum.

Remarks. Currently four Marcusadorea species are recognized— Marcusadorea corderoi ( Marcus, 1949) , Marcusadorea efatensis (Tilbrook, 2006) , Marcusadorea jamaicensis Vieira, Migotto & Winston, 2010 and Marcusadorea tubulosa ( Canu & Bassler, 1928b) . Marcusadorea pinheroi n. sp. most closely resembles M. efatensis in having a frontal shield with numerous pseudopores, a subcircular primary orifice with small condyles, ooecia with tha same calcification as frontal shields, and no avicularia. Both differ, however, in the autozooids (semi-erect in M. pinheroi n. sp. and non-elevate in M. efatensis ), development of the peristome (conspicuous in autozooids and ovicelled zooids of M. pinheroi n. sp., and especially well-developed in ovicelled zooids of M. efatensis ), and the marginal pores (non-differentiated in M. pinheroi n. sp. and large and distinct in M. efatensis ). Other species of Marcusadorea are readily distinguished from M. pinheroi n. sp. in having suboral avicularia (that are absent in M. pinheroi n. sp.), frontal walls with scattered pseudopores (entirely punctured in M. pinheroi n. sp.), and forming a pseudosinus (absent in M. pinheiroi ). Marcusadorea pinheroi n. sp. is also the only species of the genus that has semi-erect autozooids.

No information regarding substrate type used by Marcusodarea species was given, but M. tubulosa from NE Brazil is often seen on rocks and coral rubble (L.M. Vieira, unpub. data). Here we found colonies of M. pinheroi n. sp. attached to the smooth-textured surface of Timea sp. ( Fig. 16 ).

Distribution. Atlantic: Brazil (Bahia).

Figures

FIGURES 60 – 65. 60 – 61. Hippaliosina imperfecta, UFBA 1187. 60, Overview of encrusting colony; 61, Close-up of autozooids showing orifices and avicularia. 62 – 65. Marcusadorea pinheroi n. sp., UFBA 1186 holotype, Bahia State, Brazil. 62, Overview of encrusting colony; 63, Close-up of autozooid; 64, Close-up of primary orifice showing the condyles; 65, Close-up of ovicelled zooid. Scale bars: 60, 62 = 500 µm; 61, 63, 65 = 200 µm; 64 = 100 µm.

FIGURES 13 – 17. Some smooth-textured sponges analyzed in the study. Arrows indicate the bryozoans attached to the sponges. 13, Chondrilla nuculla; 14, Halichondria sp.; 15, Haliclona (Soestella) melana; 16, Timea sp.; 17, Topsentia sp. Scale bars: 1 cm.