Scrupocellaria reptans
Scrupocellaria reptans: a widespread or complex species? Scrupocellaria reptans has been reported from different localities in the Northeast Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean (Zabala & Maluquer 1988; Hayward & Ryland 1998), despite the morphological differences (e.g. shape of rhizoids an...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://zenodo.org/record/5689089 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5689089 |
| Summary: | Scrupocellaria reptans: a widespread or complex species? Scrupocellaria reptans has been reported from different localities in the Northeast Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean (Zabala & Maluquer 1988; Hayward & Ryland 1998), despite the morphological differences (e.g. shape of rhizoids and frontal scuta) among specimens from different areas. Hincks (1880, p. 52, pl. 7, figs 1–7) described two kinds of rhizoids (smooth and hooked) among British specimens of Scrupocellaria reptans. The “toothed” rhizoids (Hincks 1880, pl. 7, fig 6) are similar to those figured by Ellis (1755, 1756a, 1756 b, 1767), as well as those observed in Linnaeus’s specimens (Figure 11) and other specimens from European waters (Figs 2, 16, 17). The hooked rhizoids were also reported in specimens from Cornwall, U.K. (Couch 1844, pl. 23, fig. 3). The second type of rhizoid was characterized by Hincks (1880) as “ …simple, and giving off at the extremity a number of anastomosing fibrils forming a netted disk ” and figured by him in Plate 7, fig. 5. These rhizoids, of simple tubes, had been described earlier by Johnston (1847, p. 337, pl. LVIII, figs 3, 4), with the distal end of each tube branching into two or three small knob-like processes. In both Johnston’s and Hincks’s specimens from the British coast (NHMUK 1842.12.19.2; NHMUK 1899.5.1.3; NHMUK 1899.5.1.359), the rhizoids are smooth with a branched distal adherent end. Hincks (1880) suggested that these two forms of rhizoid are an ecological adaptation in this species. Colonies with smooth rhizoids that form circular reticulate disks distally are attached to firm surfaces like rocks or algae, while hooked rhizoids are found deeper in soft substrata like sponges. Hooks were observed by Peach (1878), who also described smooth rhizoids in colonies found on Flustra foliacea. Peach (1878) mentioned Busk’s Scrupocellaria macandrei from Spain and S. ferox from Bass Strait, which were characterized by rhizoids with hooks. Waters (1909, 1913) also used hook shape to distinguish some ... |
|---|