Marcusadorea tubulosa ( Canu & Bassler, 1928 ) Vieira & Migotto & Winston, 2010

Vieira, Leandro M., Migotto, Alvaro E. & Winston, Judith E., 2010, Marcusadorea, a new genus of lepralioid bryozoan from warm waters, Zootaxa 2348 (1), pp. 57-68 : 63-66

Marcusadorea tubulosa ( Canu & Bassler, 1928) n. comb.

( Figures 12–15 , 18–19 ; Table 3)

Holoporella (?) tubulosa Canu & Bassler 1928: 147 , pl. 24, figs 1–6, text-fig. 33a.

Coleopora tubulosa: Winston 1986: 16 ; Montoya-Cadavid, Flórez-Romero & Winston 2007: 169. Non Coleopora tubulosa Canu & Bassler 1925 .

Material examined. USNM 7532; Holoporella (?) tubulosa (Cotypes) ; Gulf of Mexico and Cuba. UFAL 0006; Marcusadorea tubulosa (Canu & Bassler) ; Coral Reefs of Pajuçara, Maceió, Alagoas State, Brazil, 9°40'49" S, 35°43'05" W, 0–3 m, coll. M.D. Correia, 20 September 2006, 1 encrusting colony. UFAL 0016; Marcusadorea tubulosa (Canu & Bassler) ; Coral Reefs of Amores, Maceió, Alagoas State, Brazil, 9°40'40" S, 35°42'10" W, 0–5 m, coll. M.D. Correia, 31 November 2006, 1 encrusting colony. UFAL 0021; 22 September 2006, 1 encrusting colony. MZUSP 0175; 0–3 m, coll. V. R. Cedro, 17 October 2005, 1 encrusting colony. MZUSP 0176; 0–5 m, coll. L.M. Vieira and M.D. Correia, 02 April 2007, 1 encrusting colony. MZUSP 0177; 1 encrusting colony (gold-coated specimen for SEM). MZUFBA 145; Coleopora corderoi Marcus ; V.E.S. Almeida det., Costa do Dendê, Bahia State, Brazil, 13°31'25" S, 38°48'38" W, 45 m, coll. J.M.L. Dominguez and R. Silva, March 2002, 1 encrusting colony. MZUFBA 146; 13°44'37" S, 38°48'40" W, 47.7 m, coll. J.M.L. Dominguez and R. Silva, March 2002, 1 erect colony. MZUFBA 147; 13°59'48" S, 38°55'34" W, 16.6 m, coll. J.M.L. Dominguez and R. Silva, 2002, 2 encrusting colonies.

Redescription. Colonies encrusting, unilaminar, or erect cylindrical with bifurcated branches, about 1.5– 3.0 mm diameter, disposed in longitudinal irregular series around the axis, reddish-brown in color. Autozooids large (0.911 mm long, 0.684 mm wide for Brazilian colonies), irregularly rectangular to oblong, separated by shallow grooves and distinctly raised lateral walls. Frontal shield convex, granular, irregularly porous, with numerous marginal areolar pores. Primary orifice widest in distal third, with a poster comprising two-thirds of a full circle, demarcated from the deep and broadly U-shaped anter by very short and blunt condyles. Primary orifice partly subcircular, bell-shaped, U-shaped anter and broader poster. No oral spines. Peristome tubular, proximally incomplete, forming a U-shaped pseudosinus. Secondary orifice rounded (0.226 mm long, 0.233 mm wide in Brazilian colonies), proximally incomplete. Large proximal suboral avicularium (0.233 mm long, 0.094 mm wide in Brazilian colonies) occasionally present, set obliquely on the side of the peristome, with the rostrum directed towards the proximal end of the pseudosimus, with curved spatulate mandible; rostrum oblong with rounded corners, slightly curving to outside, crossbar complete. Vicarious avicularia lacking. Ooecium prominent (0.383 mm long, 0.489 mm wide in Brazilian colonies), subglobular, partly incorporated into frontal shield of distal zooid, with some medium-sized pores scattered across granular-tubercular surface; ovicell opening inside peristome. Ancestrula not observed.

Remarks. Marcusadorea tubulosa is characterized by large zooids, approximately 1.20 mm in length in Caribbean specimens ( Canu & Bassler 1928), a thin-walled proximally incomplete peristome surrounding the orifice, and a large proximal suboral avicularium placed laterally on the rim of the peristome. Canu & Bassler (1928) noted that the budded zooids of M. tubulosa are distinct from those of other species of Holoporella Waters, 1909 (= Celleporaria Lamouroux, 1821 ). They noted similarities with the peristome of Coleopora species , which lack attachment marks around the operculum. They considered their material as an undetermined genus owing to the absence of ovicells and the growth mode of the colonies in which frontal budding is lacking occur. However, their plate clearly illustrates ovicells ( Canu & Bassler 1928: pl. 26, fig. 6), the presence of which we confirmed by the examination of a paratype of Holoporella (?) tubulosa deposited in the United States National Museum (USNM 7532). The examination of this material also revealed that in some zooids there is a proximal suboral avicularium placed laterally on the peristome, occupying one third of it, and globular ovicells opening inside the peristome, as in the Brazilian material figured herein ( Figures 13– 14 ).

Prior to the original description of the genus Coleopora, Canu & Bassler (1925) described the Austrian fossil species Coleopora tubulosa , later regarded by David & Pouyet (1974) as a junior synonym of Coleopora insignis ( Reuss, 1874) .

Teuchopora sp. recorded by Banta & Carson (1977) from Costa Rica resembles Marcusadorea tubulosa in general dimensions, frontal-shield formation, orifice, and the hemispherical aperture of ovicell opening into the base of the peristome, but it apparently lacks avicularia.

Among the type material of M. tubulosa were found erect colonies, comprising cylindrical bifurcated branches, figured by Canu & Bassler (1928: pl. 24, figs 1, 4–5). Erect cylindrical colonies have also been collected from Bahia state, northeastern Brazil ( Figure 15 ). The detached erect colony has irregular to oblong autozooids, somewhat erratically disposed along the axis; the avicularia are unusual ( V. E.S. Almeida pers. comm. 2009), as in specimens from Albatross Station 2319 (J. Sanner pers. comm. 2009), and are infrequent, as in encrusting specimens collected in Alagoas. Both forms of colonies found in Brazil have similar-sized zooids, orifices and avicularia .

Distribution. West Atlantic – Brazil: Bahia and Alagoas states (present study); Colombian Caribbean ( Montoya-Cadavid et al. 2007); Gulf of Mexico and Cuba ( Canu & Bassler 1928); USA: Florida ( Winston 1986).

Figures

FIGURES 12–15. Marcusadorea tubulosa (Canu & Bassler, 1928) n. comb. 12–14, MZUSP 0177, Alagoas, Brazil. 12, Group of autozooids; 13, close-up of autozooids, note the ovicelled zooid with avicularium; 14, close-up of ovicelled zooid with peristomial avicularium. 15, MZUFBA 146, Bahia, Brazil. Piece of erect colony.

FIGURES 16–19. Internal view of Marcusadorea species. 16–17, Marcusadorea jamaicensis n. sp.; VMNH 13662 (Paratype), Rio Bueno, Jamaica. 16, Frontal shield of two autozooids; 17, close-up of orifice, note the barely projecting condyles. 18–19, Marcusadorea tubulosa (Canu & Bassler, 1928); MZUSP 0176 Alagoas, Brazil. 18, Frontal shield of two autozooids; 19, close-up of orifice.