Cigclisula australis, Almeida & Souza & Menegola & Sanner & Vieira, 2014

Almeida, Ana C. S., Souza, Facelucia B. C., Menegola, Carla M. S., Sanner, Joann & Vieira, Leandro M., 2014, Taxonomic review of the family Colatooeciidae Winston, 2005 (Bryozoa, Cheilostomata), with description of seven new species, Zootaxa 3868 (1), pp. 1-61 : 22-25

Cigclisula australis n. sp.

( Fig. 12 , Table 3 )

Escharoides occlusa Busk, 1884: 150 (in part), pl. 21, fig. 8 (?in part). [Cape York, Australia]

Lepralia occlusa: Kirkpatrick 1890: 604 , 612 (?in part). [Torres Straits]

Lepralia occlusa: Waters 1909: 152 (in part), pl. 13, fig. 15; pl. 14, figs 1–9, 13 (?in part). [Cape York, Australia]

Cigclisula occlusa: Hastings 1932: p. 43 (in part), text-fig. 13 (?in part). [ Australia]

? Myriozoum occlusum: Marcus 1921: 20 , pl. 1, fig. 8; pl. 2, figs 1–2. [ Australia]

Material examined. Holotype: USNM 8894 , Escharoides occlusa Busk, Challenger Expedition, Cape York , Australia.

Diagnosis. Erect Cigclisula with minutely tubercular frontal shield; usually 2–3 frontal avicularia; larger interzooidal spatulate avicularia with triangular foramen and smaller interzooidal spatulate avicularia with oval foramen; ooecium minutely tubercular and ectooecium with longitudinal band of 7–18 irregular pseudopores.

......continued on the next page

Etymology. Latin australis , southern, alluding to the type locality being in Australia.

Description. Colony erect, bilaminar, branching. Zooids hexagonal, longer than wide, delimited by slightly raised lateral walls. Frontal shield heavily calcified, uniformly punctured by 18–34 pseudopores, minutely tubercular. Primary orifice small relative to zooid size, somewhat hoof-shaped, wider than long, sunken, with arcuate anter and broad shallow poster separated by 2 proximolateral down-curved condyles. Secondary orifice non-tubercular. Suboral, elliptical, laterally directed avicularium with 2 sizes, 1 smaller and the other double sized. Frontal avicularia small, elliptical, 2–3 per zooid, placed at zooidal margins, sometimes near ooecial margins. Interzooidal avicularia of 2 sizes, 1 as long as zooids, large, rostrum spatulate, longer than wide, proximal edge rounded, median constriction and distal edge concave, palate occupying half rostral length, with triangular foramen; avicularia smaller than zooids sometimes present, short, rostrum spatulate, wider than long, proximal edge rounded, distal constriction and distal edge concave; palate occupying half rostral length, with oval foramen. Ooecium subglobose, inclined toward zooid surface, minutely tubercular; ectooecium with longitudinal band of 7–18 irregular pseudopores.

Remarks. Busk (1884) described C. occlusa (as Escharoides occlusa ) from the Philippines and Australia, but examination of these specimens revealed three distinct species, C. occlusa , C. australis n. sp. and C. buski n. sp., mainly distinguished by the frontal surface of the zooids, number of ectooecial pseudopores, shape of foramen of the interzooidal avicularia and metrics of zooids, frontal pseudopores and suboral avicularia.

Cigclisula australis n. sp. is characterized by the minutely tubercular frontal shield, two sizes of interzooidal spatulate avicularia (the larger with a triangular foramen, the smaller with an oval foramen, minutely tubercular ooecium and ectooecium with a longitudinal band of 7–18 irregular pseudopores.

Besides C. occlusa , C. australis n. sp. and C. buski n. sp., three other species of Cigclisula have erect bilaminar colonies— C. cautium , C. fissurata and C. fruticosa . Cigclisula cautium is distinguished from C. australis n. sp. by the distribution and size of zooidal pseudopores (mainly marginal and larger, 0.021 –0.048 mm diameter, vs uniformly spaced and smaller, 0.007 –0.017 mm diameter, in Cigclisula australis n. sp.), texture of the frontal shield (smooth in C. cautium , minutely tubercular in C. australis n. sp.), shape of primary orifice (longer than wide in C. cautium , subcircular in C. australis n. sp.), and shape of interzooidal avicularia (rostrum foot-shaped in C. cautium , spatulate in C. australis n. sp.). Cigclisula fissurata differs in the distribution of frontal pseudopores (uniform in C. australis n. sp., marginal in C. fissurata ), frontal and interzooidal avicularia (present in C. australis n. sp., absent in C. fissurata ) and number of ectooecial pseudopores (7–18 in C. australis n. sp., 2–5 in C. fissurata ). Cigclisula fruticosa is distinguished by the irregularly punctured frontal shield (pseudopores of C. australis n. sp. are uniformly distributed), short U-shaped median sinus (absent in C. australis n. sp.), secondary orifice with low blunt processes (non-tubercular in C. australis n. sp.) and ectooecium with about six pseudopores (7–18 in C. australis n. sp.).

Distribution. Pacific: Australia (Queensland).

Figures

FIGURE 12. Cigclisula australis n. sp. A–F, USNM 8894, holotype, Australia. A, group of zooids and spatulate interzooidal avicularia. B, primary orifice. C, ovicelled zooid. D, E, F, ovicelled zooids with suboral avicularia and an associated spatulate interzooidal avicularium. Scale bars: A, C, D, E, F = 200 µm; B = 50 µm.