Lepraliella contigua

• Main Author: Martino, Emanuela Di
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Bryozoa; Gymnolaemata; Cheilostomatida; Lepraliellidae; Lepraliella; Lepraliella contigua; Hammerfest; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6425469; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/038254222A3E444B8A9FFE6D2B2CFCB6

Lepraliella contigua (Smitt, 1868) (Fig. 5; Table 4) Cellepora ramulosa forma contigua Smitt, 1868: 31, figs 198–201. Lepraliella contigua : Levinsen 1917: 467. Material examined. Lectotype (designated here) SMNH-Type-1695a (Fig. 5C–E), and paralectotypes SMNH-Type-1695b (Fig. 5A, B) and SMNH-Type-1695c (Fig. 5F); three colony fragments; North Atlantic Ocean, Hammerfest, Norway, depth 73–110 m. Leg. S. Lovén 1837. Description. Colony encrusting, multiserial, uni- to multilaminar. Autozooids quincuncially arranged (Fig. 5A, C) or irregularly arranged if in multilayered colonies (Fig. 5F); boundaries ill-defined, sometimes marked by marginal areolar pores and undulate grooves. Frontal shield slightly convex centrally, nodular, imperforate apart from circular, marginal areolar pores, usually two per zooid, one located on the proximal corner and the other on the lateral corner (Fig. 5B, D) either side, 15–18 µm in diameter, from which secondary calcification obliterating the zooidal boundaries seems to spread. Primary orifice semicircular, hidden proximally by the raised suboral avicularium, with two robust, rounded lateral condyles and smooth anter (Fig. 5D); secondary orifice reduced and eye-shaped (Fig. 5E); 3–5 oral spines (more commonly 4), equidistantly spaced, the base 25–45 µm in diameter, in both ovicellate and non-ovicellate zooids; all spines or only the most distal pair often obliterated because of the spreading of secondary calcification (Fig. 5D, E). Adventitious avicularium suboral, placed on one side of the orifice, elliptical to slightly spatulate, raised distally, sloping proximally, directed proximo-laterally, seemingly with two triangular condyles often broken. Ovicells subimmersed with a widely arched opening; ooecium globular, resting on the next distal zooid, smooth, covered distally by secondary calcification (Fig. 5D). Remarks. Lepraliella contigua is recorded from the Arctic, the northern Atlantic and the northern Pacific (Bock 2022). Smitt (1868) referred to the specimens from Hammerfest ...