Celleporaria albirostris (Smitt, 1873)

Judith L Winston, 2016, Bryozoa of Floridan Oculina reefs, Zootaxa 4071 (1), pp. 1-81 : 47

Celleporaria albirostris (Smitt, 1873)

( Fig. 25 ; Table 24 )

Discopora albirostris Smitt, 1873: 70 , pl. 12, figs 234–239 (not fig. 233a, b).

Holoporella albirostris: Osburn 1914: 215 ; Canu & Bassler 1918: 120; Osburn 1927: 130; Canu & Bassler 1928a: 142, pl. 22, figs 10–11, text-fig. 31; Osburn 1940: 455; Osburn 1947: 43.

Celleporaria albirostris: Long & Rucker 1970: 20 , figs 5, 6; Winston 1984: 17, figs 33, 34; 2005: 49, figs 129–135.

Material examined. VMNH no. 70638; USNM no. 1283251.

Description. Living colonies brightly pigmented, usually reddish, ranging from light pink to cerise. Colonies encrusting, unilaminar to multilaminar, acicular suboral spines giving prickly texture to colony surface. Frontal shield with weakly granular calcification; a few marginal pores. Growing edge of zooids subrectangular; zooids in frontally budded layers more convex and irregularly polygonal ( Fig. 25 A, B). Zooidal frontal surface rising to peaked suboral umbo; at its base a vertically directed adventitious avicularium with serrated rostrum. Large interzooidal avicularia with lingulate-spatulate mandibles occurring between zooids ( Fig. 25 D).

Orifice subcircular, its proximal margin shallowly curved, with no sinuses or denticles ( Fig. 25 E, F). Ovicells imperforate, globular, cucullate (upper center, Fig. 25 C), their calcification showing suture lines and openings partially blocked by suboral spine and avicularium. Embryos orange red.

Remarks. Colonies from the Oculina samples were all dead when collected, and colony surfaces were broken or partly overgrown by other organisms so that not all characters could be illustrated. However, the large spatulate avicularia and the shape of the orifice are distinctive.

Distribution. Cape Hatteras to Florida, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico.

Figures

FIGURE 25. Celleporaria albirostris (Smitt, 1873): A, frontally budded area of colony; B, another group of frontally budded zooids; C, group of zooids, ooecium in upper center; D, spatulate avicularium; E, zooid orifice; F, another orifice. Scale bars: A, 1 mm; B, C, 0.5 mm; D, 0.3 mm; E, 0.1 mm; F, 0.2 mm.

Tables

TABLE 24. Measurements in mm of Celleporaria albirostris (Smitt, 1873).

	Lz	Wz	Lo	Wo	Lav	Wav
N	18	18	18	18	10	10
Mean	0.475	0.365	0.136	0.133	0.283	0.122
SD	0.051	0.050	0.021	0.019	0.053	0.025
Min	0.396	0.306	0.108	0.108	0.180	0.090
Max	0.558	0.522	0.180	0.180	0.360	0.162