Celleporaria sp.

Ruiz-Velasco, Sofía, Ros, Macarena, Guerra-García, José M. & López-Fé, Carlos M., 2025, Fouling bryozoans in recreational marinas of the Canary Islands (North-Eastern Atlantic) with new records of non-indigenous and cryptogenic species, Zootaxa 5656 (1), pp. 1-63 : 25-26

Celleporaria sp. Unassigned

( Fig. 11 ; Table 11)

Figured material. Marina Tenerife (1C on buoy) (19/06/23).

Other material examined. Corralejo (28/06/23) ( MNCN 25.03/4459) (1C on buoy).

Description. Colony encrusting,multilaminar,irregular in the disposition of zooids( Fig.11A ).Zooids rectangular or nearly oval, with marginal pores in the granular frontal shield ( Fig. 11B ). Primary orifice slightly wider than long, distal margin rounded and smooth, proximal margin slightly convex, with the presence of a peristome, including the suboral avicularium umbo, forming a U-shaped pseudosinus. Lateral areas of pseudosinus nearly rectangular, almost forming a 90º angle on one side, and more rounded on the side including the suboral avicularium umbo ( Fig. 11C ). Behind the peristome, two or three denticulated process form one or two sinuses. Suboral avicularia oval, denticulated distally and directed proximolaterally ( Fig. 11C ). Vicarious avicularia nearly as long as autozooids, spatulate, rounded at the tip, rostrum raised and coarsely dentate ( Fig. 11D ). Ovicells not observed.

Remarks. Unfortunately, the scarcity of material and lack of diagnostic characters (i.e. ovicells) prevented the identification to species level. Celleporaria inaudita Tilbrook, Hayward & Gordon, 2001 , Celleporaria mordax ( Marcus, 1937) and Celleporaria sherryae Winston, 2005 are highly reminiscent of many characters observed in our specimens (such as the proximal indentation in the primary orifice and the spatulate avicularia with thick body and rostrum), but these species lack a pseudosinus (see Winston et al. 2014; Souto et al. 2016; Winston & Jackson 2021). In addition, C. mordax shows shorter avicularia in comparison to our material (0.183 –0.187 mm in Almeida et al. (2018) vs 0.31–0.38 mm in our material), and it is subtriangular, without narrowing towards the middle of the avicularium ( Winston et al. 2014) like in our case. The pseudosinus formed partially by the suboral avicularium umbo is reminiscent of species such as Celleporaria atlantica ( Busk, 1884) , native to the South-Western Atlantic and Celleporaria fusca ( Busk, 1854) , native to Australia. However, our material shows several marginal pores, and the primary orifice is smooth proximally. It also lacks frontal or lateral avicularia. Furthermore, the shape of the vicarious avicularia of C. atlantica do not match our material, suggesting it is neither C. atlantica nor C. fusca .

Figures

FIGURE 11. Celleporaria sp.A. View of colony through SEM and B. through stereomicroscope. C.Autozooids. D. Primary orifice and suboral avicularium. E. Vicarious avicularium. Scale bars: A = 200 µm; B = 300 µm; C = 100 µm; D = 40 µm; E = 60 µm.