Abstract
Larval type, larval morphology, ancestrular morphology and colony astogeny have great systematic value in the cheilostomate bryozoans, but for most species these characters are undocumented. Whilst most cheilostomate bryozoan species produce lecithotrophic coronate larvae; a minority of species produce planktotrophic cyphonautes larvae, all belonging to genera within the superfamily Membraniporoidea. Biflustra laboriosa Tilbrook, 2006 nominally belongs to a membraniporid genus whose species are otherwise characterised by having a twinned ancestrula. The production of a single ancestrula from a cyphonautes larva and overall zooidal morphology excludes B. laboriosa from the Membraniporidae and its zooidal characters are alien to any other membraniporoidean genus. Accordingly, Tarsocryptus n. gen. is erected to accommodate it, resulting in the new combination Tarsocryptus laboriosa n. comb. Its reassignment here to the membraniporoidean Electridae is tentative.References
Busk, G. (1852) Catalogue of Marine Polyzoa in the Collection of the British Museum. I. Cheilostomata (part). Trustees of the British Museum, London. 54 p.
Grange, K.R. & Gordon, D.P. (2005) The spread and potential impact of the introduced bryozoan Biflustra grandicella. Final Research Report for Ministry of Fisheries Research Project ZBS2003-07. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington. 30 p.
Gray, J.E. (1848) List of the Specimens of British Animals in the Collections of the British Museum. Part 1. Centrionae or radiated animals. Trustees of the British Museum, London. [Polyzoa pp. 91–151]
Hayward, P.J. (2001) The identity of two species of cyphonautes larvae (Bryozoa: Cheilostomata) from Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 81, 995–999.
Levinsen, G.M.R. (1902) Studies on Bryozoa. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den naturhistoriske Forening i Kjøbenhavn, 54, 1–31.
Levinsen, G.M.R. (1909) Morphological and Systematic Studies on the Cheilostomatous Bryozoa. Nationale Forfatteres Forlag, Copenhagen. 427 p.
Liu, X., Yin, X. & Ma, J. (2001) Biology of Marine-fouling Bryozoans in the Coastal Waters of China. Science Press, Beijing. 860 p., 82 pls.
Orbigny, A.D. d’ (1851–54) Paléontologie française. Descriptions des Mollusques et rayonnées fossiles. Terrains crétacés V. Bryozoaires. Victor Masson, Paris. 1192 p., 200 pls.
Taylor, P.D. & Monks, N. (1997) A new cheilostome genus pseudoplanktonic on molluscs and algae. Invertebrate Biology, 116, 39–51.
Tilbrook, K.J. (1999) Description of Hippopodina feegeensis and three other species of Hippopodina Levinsen, 1909 (Bryozoa: Cheilostomatida). Journal of Zoology, London, 247, 449–456.
Tilbrook, K.J. (2006) Cheilostomatous Bryozoa from the Solomon Islands. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Monographs 4 (Studies in Biodiversity, 3), 1–386.
Tilbrook, K.J., Hayward, P.J. & Gordon, D.P. (2001) Cheilostomatous Bryozoa from Vanuatu. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, London, 131, 35–108.
Zimmer, R.L. & Woollacott, R.M. (1977) Structure and classification of gymnolaemate larvae. In: Woollacott, R.M. & Zimmer, R.L. (eds), Biology of Bryozoans. Academic Press, New York, 57–89.