Smittipora abyssicola

• Main Author: Martino, Emanuela Di
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Bryozoa; Gymnolaemata; Cheilostomatida; Onychocellidae; Smittipora; Smittipora abyssicola; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6424506; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6424506

Smittipora abyssicola (Smitt, 1873) (Fig. 3; Table 3) Vincularia abyssicola Smitt, 1873: 6, pl. I, figs 60, 61. Smittipora abyssicola: Jullien 1882: 284. Material examined. Lectotype [designated here; figured in Smitt (1873, fig. 61)] SMNH-Type-1815, North Atlantic Ocean, Florida, United States, depth 124 m, on a solitary coral. Leg. Gulf Stream Explorations 1868–69, coll. L.F. De Pourtales. Paralectotype SMNH-Type-9104, North Atlantic Ocean, off Cojima, Cuba, depth 824 m, on a phidoloporid bryozoan. Leg. Gulf Stream Explorations 1868–69, coll. L.F. De Pourtales. Description. Colony starting with a more or less developed encrusting base (Fig. 3A, B), and later becoming erect, forming cylindrical branches, about 1 mm in diameter, comprised of 4–6 alternating longitudinal series of autozooids and vicarious avicularia (Fig. 3B, C, E), oligo- to multiserial (depending on the substrate available), unilaminar. Ancestrula elliptical, similar to later autozooids but smaller (Fig. 3A, D), c. 500 µm long by 380 µm wide; cryptocyst extensive, finely granular, sloping inwards laterally, depressed and flat centrally; opesia rounded quadrangular, almost equidimensional, 176 µm long by 188 µm wide; three zooids budded directly from the ancestrula, one distally and two distolaterally, either exclusively autozooids (Fig. 3A), or both autozooids and vicarious avicularia (Fig. 3D), smaller than subsequent generations (first budded zooid: c. 525 µm long by 350 µm wide; first vicarious avicularium: c. 375 µm long by 295 µm wide); ancestrula later surrounded by six zooids. Autozooids distinct with raised margins and shallow grooves, those of the encrusting base quincuncially or irregularly arranged, those forming the cylindrical branches arranged in alternating longitudinal series (Fig. 3C, E); semi-elliptical, elongate with V-shaped proximal edge, sometimes rounded hexagonal, longer than wide (mean L/ W 1.56). Cryptocyst concave, finely granular, extensive (Fig. 3F). Opesia rounded quadrangular to rounded trapezoidal with proximal ...