Cymuloporidae

Winston, Judith E. & Vieira, Leandro M., 2013, Systematics of interstitial encrusting bryozoans from southeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 3710 (2), pp. 101-146 : 108

Family Cymuloporidae fam. nov.

Type genus. Cymulopora Winston & Håkansson, 1986 . Also included, Crepis Jullien, 1883 .

Diagnosis. Colony repent, with uniserial chains of zooids branching laterally. Zooids oval to pyriform, with gymnocystal wall forming a tubular proximal cauda. Cryptocyst well developed, imperforate, with opesia occupying distal half of the total zooidal length. No avicularia or other heterozooids. No spines. Ooecia endozooidal or prominent.

Remarks. The genus Cymulopora was first assigned to Microporidae Gray, 1848 owing to similarities with Mollia Lamouroux, 1816 . Reverter-Gil et al. (2011) suggested affinities between Cymulopora and Crepis Jullien, 1883 owing to the presence of uniserial colonies, zooids with a gymnocystal cauda and an extensive cryptocyst; Crepis is distinguished by the presence of very long proximal gymnocystal caudae and prominent ooecia (present in Crepis harmelini Reverter-Gil, Souto & Fernández-Pulpeiro, 2011 ; ovicell unknown in others). In addition, they also noted that the Microporidae includes genera with a reduced gymnocyst and cryptocyst with two or more opesiules (sometimes confluent with opesiae) and assigned both Crepis and Cymulopora to Calloporidae sensu lato. The presence of a gymnocystal cauda and the absence of articulated oral spines and other heterozooids leads us to erect here a new family of Calloporoidea, Cymuloporidae fam. nov., to accommodate Cymulopora and Crepis .