Genus Cosciniopsis Canu & Bassler, 1927

Type species. Cosciniopsis coelatus Canu & Bassler, 1927

Diagnosis. Colonies encrusting; cystid with distinct bright color. Zooids with lepralioid frontal wall and numerous small pseudopores, except around the orifice; lateral wall with uniporous septula near the basal wall. Primary orifice with arched distal region and shallow concave proximal border; paired proximolateral condyles with conspicuous lunula. Primary orifice dimorphic in ovicelled zooids, without spines.Adventitious avicularia may be present, single or paired, typically latero-oral. Ovicell hyperstomial, cleithral, with ooecium surface morphologically similar to the frontal wall of the zooid.

Remarks. The taxonomy of Cosciniopsis has been considered confusing (Tilbrook 2006; Vieira et al. 2010) mainly due to a poorly informative diagnosis. Also, few species were studied using SEM [e.g., Cosciniopsis declivis Harmer,1957, Cosciniopsis australis (Waters, 1889), Cosciniopsis caerulea (Canu& Bassler, 1929), and Cosciniopsis globosa Harmer, 1957)], making it challenging to correctly identify congeners. The genotype Cosciniopsis coelatus Canu & Bassler, 1927, originally described from the Philippines, has cleithral ovicell (Tilbrook 2006), thus being considered distinct from other gigantoporids. However, the monophyly between Cosciniopsis, Gigantopora, and Gephyrophora was recently corroborated based on genome-skimmed data (Orr et al. 2022).