Colatooeciidae Winston, 2005

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 : 30

Family Colatooeciidae Winston, 2005

? Trematooecia persica Baradari, Nasrolahi & Taylor, 2019 Introduced ( Fig. 14 ; Table 14)

Trematooecia persica Baradari, Nasrolahi & Taylor, 2019: 479–481 , figs 74–85.

Celleporaria vermiformis ( Waters, 1909) : Ostrovsky et al. 2011a; Ulman et al. 2017, S2, fig. 2G–I.

Figured material. Corralejo (28/06/23) (1C on buoy) ( MNCN 25.03/4462).

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

Description. Colony encrusting, multilaminar, whiteish in colour ( Fig. 14A ). Zooids irregularly polygonal, generally longer than wide. Frontal wall slightly convex, area around orifice and suboral avicularium raised, without pores but with granular calcification. Large circular pores in zooidal margin, with a smaller round pore just below (at the base) of avicularian umbo, which shows a short spine ( Fig. 14B ). Primary orifice wider than long, varying from D-shaped to almost subcircular, with small condyles located at the hinge ( Fig. 14C ). Peristome granular, surrounding primary orifice and rising proximally into a pointed umbo allocating the suboral avicularium. Suboral avicularium with dentate rostrum and complete crossbar ( Fig. 14D ). Vicarious avicularia large, slightly less longer than autozooids, with spatulate rounded untoothed rostrum edge and deep palette ( Fig. 14E ). Ovicells cap-shaped, open, with granular surface ( Fig. 14F ).

Remarks. Our material is morphologically very similar to the material assigned to Celleporaria vermiformis ( Waters, 1909) from Safaga Bay ( Ostrovsky et al. 2011a) and from the Mediterranean Sea ( Ulman et al. 2017). However, the original description of C. vermiformis (as Holoporella vermiformis ) mentions a darkly pigmented zoarium (it is whiteish in our material) and does not indicate the conspicuous condyles found in T. persica (see Harmelin 2014). In fact, the C. vermiformis material from Safaga Bay probably correspond to T. persica (see Baradari et al. 2019) as the material from the Mediterranean depicted in the supplementary material by Ulman et al. (2017). Baradari et al. (2019) compared T. persica to Trematooecia mikeli Sokolover, Taylor & Ilan, 2016 , which was proposed to be reassigned to the genus Celleporaria by Rosso & Di Martino (2023). Indeed, T. persica also shares features characteristic of Celleporaria and lacks some relevant ones typical of Trematooecia . The revised diagnosis of the genus Trematooecia mentions a “frontal wall with frontal pseudopores and marginal areolar pores” ( Almeida et al. 2014). In our material, and that of Baradari et al. (2019), the frontal wall shows mostly marginal pores, except for one located at the base of the raised peristome where the suboral avicularium is placed. More importantly, the revised description mentions (1) a secondary orifice with tubercules and processes not seen in T. persica and (2) ectooecium with a single membranous frontal area ( Almeida et al. 2014) rather than cap-shaped ooecia as in T. persica . This recently described species also seems similar morphologically to Celleporaria pilaefera ( Canu & Bassler, 1929) depicted by McCann et al. (2007) and Dick & Grischenko (2017), among others. Nevertheless, it must be noted that the original description of the species (as Holoporella pilaefera ) mentions a greenish zoarium, pillars on the frontal shield and a globular ovicell. A comparison of the material identified as T. persica and C. pilaefera would be necessary to provide further insights.

Distribution and status. Trematooecia persica was described from the northern Persian Gulf using material collected from panels ( Baradari et al. 2019). This species could have been recorded in Oman (https:// bryozoancollection.univie.ac.at/Sammlung/Bryozoa/ Oman / Oman.html) and the Bay of Safaga in the Red Sea (https://bryozoancollection.univie.ac.at/Sammlung/Bryozoa/Safaga_Bay/Safaga_Bay.html) ( Ostrovsky et al. 2011a) as C. vermiformis according to Baradari et al. (2019). This species might have been also recorded as C. vermiformis in the Mediterranean Sea ( Ulman et al. 2017). This study constitutes the first record of this species for the eastern Atlantic, where it is considered introduced due to its wide distribution in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and its absence until now in records from Macaronesia.

Figures

FIGURE 14.?Trematooecia persica Baradari, Nasrolahi & Taylor, 2019 (MNCN 25.03/4462).A. View of colony through SEM and B. through stereomicroscope. C. Primary orifice. D. Suboral avicularium. E. Vicarious avicularium. F. Ooecium. Scale bars: A = 200 µm; B = 300 µm; C, D = 20 µm; E, F = 40 µm.