SPHAEROZOIDEA Müller, 1859

Suzuki, Noritoshi, Caulet, Jean-Pierre & Dumitrica, Paulian, 2021, A new integrated morpho- and molecular systematic classification of Cenozoic radiolarians (Class Polycystinea) - suprageneric taxonomy and logical nomenclatorial acts, Geodiversitas 43 (15), pp. 405-573 : 527

Superfamily SPHAEROZOIDEA Müller, 1859

Sphaerozoen Müller, 1859a: 17 [as a family].

Sphaerozoeen – Hertwig 1879: 261 [as an order]. — Brandt 1885: 210-212.

Sphaerozoa – Lankester et al. 1909:145 [as an order].

Spheroidea – Calkins 1909: 40 [as an order].

Spherozoea – Calkins 1909: 40 [as an order].

Collosphaerinea – Poche 1913: 210 [as a suborder] (synonymized with Collosphaerida, Polycyttaria).

Sphaerozoidea – Bertolini 1937: 1267-1268 [as a group].

Collosphaeroidea – Bertolini 1937: 1268.

DIAGNOSIS. —For Colonial Collodaria , the colony consists of many collodarian cells which are embedded in a gelatinous support. A reticulated system of pseudopodia interconnects the collodarian cells inside the gelatinous substance. The cell is constituted of three zonal structure: the adipose droplet (oil droplet) in the center, the intracapsular zone with an endoplasm, and the extracapsular zone with ectoplasm. The intracapsular zone includes many small nuclei, pigmented spherules observed in light microscopy, and several small orthorhombic shaped crystals. The intracapsular zone is bounded from the extracapsular zone by the capsular wall. The extracapsular zone resembles a transparent clear thin zone and consists of the ectoplasm and pseudopodia. Anatomically, the pseudopodia are part of the endoplasm. The endoplasm extrudes from the intracapsular zone through the fusules, that is a special tunnel organelle on the central capsule. The extracapsular zone is bounded by the plasmalemma of the gelatinous material. The pseudopodia buried in gelatinous material radiate and appear as fibers of gelatinous matter. The algal symbionts are located in the ectoplasm or in the gelatinous matter. The boundary of the gelatinous matter is unknown. If present, the siliceous skeletons are wrapped with silicalemma. It is unknown whether the silicalemma is a part of the endoplasm and/or of the ectoplasm.

REMARKS

The Collodaria are conventionally divided into “colonial Collodaria ” and “solitary Collodaria ”; the former is commonly known as Sphaerozoidea . One of the most comprehensive studies of the Sphaerozoidea was performed by Strelkov & Reshetnyak (1971). The morphological terminology adopted in fig. 6 of Strelkov & Reshetnyak (1971) is a basis in understanding the Sphaerozoidea . The metabarcoding survey found that the coastal area populations are dominated by the Sphaerozoidae , while open ocean populations are dominated by the Collosphaeridae ( Biard et al. 2017) . Although the exact taxonomy of the host is unknown, amphipod species such as Oxycephalusclausi, Streetsiaporcella and Hyperietta stebbingi were found among Sphaerozoidea ( Harbison et al. 1977; Zeidler 2016). The Sphaerozoidea consists of the Collophiidae, Collosphaeridae and Sphaerozoidae . The formation of superfamily names for this group needs some additional explanations. The Latin stem of Sphaerozoum is Sphaerozo-, thus Sphaerozo-oidea is grammatically correct. However, in this case, there is an old pronunciation problem. When one pronounces a double “oo”, the result is not very nice for Latin, Italian, French and Spanish ears. In English the pronunciation can result as “ouuu” sound. There is just a big exception which is the Greek name “zoon” = zoo (identical in all European languages, even in Russian). The prevalent use in occidental languages is to remove the additional “o”, so as not to pronounce this not phonetically nice “oo”. Sphaerozoidae sounds better than Sphaerozooidae.Very often, many radiolarists have been using translations of such word in their native languages: Sphaerozoidés in French, Sphaerozoids in English and Sphaerozoiden in German (always without a double “o”).