Lageniporina, Judith L Winston, 2016

Judith L Winston, 2016, Bryozoa of Floridan Oculina reefs, Zootaxa 4071 (1), pp. 1-81 : 64-65

Genus Lageniporina gen. nov.

Etymology. Latin, lagena, large narrow-necked jar or bottle and porus, hole, plus the suffix - inus, thus made of pores, a common ending for cheilostome names.

Diagnosis. Uniserial celleporid with flask-like zooids, tubular pores and an ooecium placed on the 'back' of the peristome into which it opens. No avicularia or oral spines.

Description. Colony encrusting, unilaminar, uniserial, branching. Zooids elongate-oval, convex, thickly calcified. Scattered frontal pores, some on short tubes; a few marginal pores. Primary orifice subcircular with weakly defined poster. Peristome well developed with thickly calcified rim. Ooecia small, globular, with peripheral band of tiny pores, opening into peristome. No avicularia.

Remarks. Canu & Bassler (1928a) placed their new Western Atlantic species Lagenipora verrucosa in the Phylactellidae , although Lagenipora Hincks, 1877 is a celleporid (see Hayward & Ryland 1999: 332), with Cellepora lepralioides Norman, 1868 the type species. Cheetham & Sandberg (1964) created the genus Lagenicella , type species Lagenipora marginata, Canu & Bassler, 1930 , for eight species previously attrbuted to Lagenipora , but did not include Lagenipora verrucosa in this group, which they also placed in the Phylactellidae .

Perhaps Hincks’ (1877) definition of Lagenipora could be modified to include L. verrucosa , which does appear to be celleporid in affinity. Like Lagenipora , the primary orifice is rounded with indistinct condyle and no orificial spines, the peristome is well developed and conceals the primary orifice rapidly as zooids develop, and the ooecium is hyperstomial and opens into the base of the peristome distally. The entooecium is distinctively perforated by a peripheral band of minute pores. There are no avicularia.

However, L. verrucosa, in addition to being uniserial and branching, lacks the large kenozooids mentioned by Hayward & Ryland (1999, p. 532). It also has open-ended tubercles (i.e. tubiform pores) in the frontal shield in addition to the few marginal pores and the minute entooecial pores. For these reasons a new genus is created for L. verrucosa.