Floridina Jullien 1882
Creators: name: Taylor, Paul D.
name: Martha, Silviu O.
name: Gordon, Dennis P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Bryozoa
Gymnolaemata
Cheilostomatida
Onychocellidae
Floridina

description: Genus Floridina Jullien, 1882   
(Figure 11)  
 Type species   
 Mollia antiqua Smitt, 1873, by original designation. Recent, Atlantic Ocean off Florida, USA.   
 Diagnosis   
Colony encrusting. Autozooids subhexagonal (Figure 11 (a)), rounded distally; zooidal boundaries raised with a median groove. Cryptocyst extensive, granular. Gymnocyst lacking. Opesia terminal, occupying one-third to half of frontal surface; trifoliate, with deep opesiular indentations and lateral constrictions, the proximal edge forming a tongue. Ovicells immersed, the distal edge of the opesiae of fertile zooids formed by the distal zooid (Figure 11 (d)). Avicularia vicarious, symmetrical (Figure 11 (a,b)), about half the width of an autozooid but of similar length; opesia round, with broad median indentation; condyles lacking; rostrum acutely triangular, floor pustulose.  
 Remarks   
 In addition to the extant type species, which was recently redescribed by Winston (2016), Jullien (1882) referred three Cretaceous species to his new genus: Semieschara bimarginata d’ Orbigny, 1851a (pl. 654, figs 10–12), S. ringens d’ Orbigny, 1852a (pl. 709, figs 5–8) and Vincularia gothica d’ Orbigny, 1851a (pl. 654, figs 13–16). Canu (1900) added a further five Cretaceous species to the genus, plus three Cenozoic species and two more Recent species. Some 52 species of Floridina are currently listed by Bock (2017), ranging from Coniacian to Recent (Voigt 1981a, p. 457 specified Coniacian as the stage of first appearance). The defining character used by most taxonomists in assigning species to Floridina has been the trifoliate form of the opesia (e.g. Voigt 1923, 1987; Knowles 2008) (Figure 11 (a,c)). However, in the Cretaceous species F. impressipora (Marsson, 1887), the proximolateral opesiular identations may be separated from the opesia to form opesiules (Voigt 1979). The shape of the avicularium shows some variability, with either a pointed or rounded rostrum, and varies in size relative to the autozooids. While most species of Floridina are encrusters, some are erect and have either vincularian (e.g. F. gothica (d’ Orbigny, 1851a)) or bifoliate (e.g. F. granulosa Canu and Bassler, 1920) colonies. Oral spine bases are present in an early Eocene species provisionally assigned to Floridina by Gordon and Taylor (2015), whereas rounded tubercles occur at the corners of some zooids in an interstitial species attributed by Winston and Håkansson (1986) to F. parvicella Canu and Bassler, 1923.   
 Range   
Cretaceous (Coniacian) to Recent. Note that Schager (1968) considered all of the Cretaceous and non-American species assigned to this genus to be distinct, differing in the morphology and details of the avicularia from the American type and other species.
description: Published as part of Taylor, Paul D., Martha, Silviu O. & Gordon, Dennis P., 2018, Synopsis of ' onychocellid' cheilostome bryozoan genera, pp. 1657-1721 in Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) (J. Nat. Hist.) 52 (25 - 26) on pages 1678-1679, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2018.1481235, http://zenodo.org/record/4747141