Integripelta, Gordon & Mawatari & Kajihara, 2002

Gordon, Dennis P., Mawatari, Shunsuke F. & Kajihara, Hiroshi, 2002, New taxa of Japanese and New Zealand Eurystomellidae (Phylum Bryozoa) and their phylogenetic relationships, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136 (2), pp. 199-216 : 204

INTEGRIPELTA GEN. NOV.

Diagnosis

Colony encrusting, multiserial. Autozooids with smooth gymnocystal frontal shield lacking foramina. Zooidal orifices with proximolateral indentations, and shallow excavations in the adjacent gymnocyst; oral rim lacking median suboral suture. No spines or avicularia. Maternal orifice usually slightly larger than autozooidal orifice, or obviously so; brooding internal, with a distal ovicell-like kenozooid with a central perforation. Ancestrula with membranous frontal wall only, no spines. Interzooidal communications via uniporous mural septula.

Type species: Lepralia bilabiata Hincks 1884 .

Etymology

From integer (L.) whole, and pelta (f. L.) a small shield.

Remarks

A new genus is established here for encrusting eurystomellids with imperforate frontal shields and communicating via uniporous mural septula instead of basal pore-chambers. In the diagnosis, the ancestrula is described as having a membranous frontal wall only. This is based on the description of I. bilabiata by Soule et al. (1995), who described it as resembling the adult zooid “but with cuticular frontal wall”; there are no spines (D. Soule, pers. comm. 2001). This accords with the form of the ancestrula in Eurystomella , which has no frontal shield and the distal rim and operculum are like those of later zooids. The ancestrula has not yet been encountered in any of the new species described below. Integripelta bilabiata was fully described and illustrated by SEM by Soule et al. (1995).