Ammatophora arenacea Winston & Vieira, 2013, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Winston, Judith E.
name: Vieira, Leandro M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Bryozoa
Gymnolaemata
Cheilostomatida
Calloporidae
Ammatophora
Ammatophora arenacea

description: Ammatophora arenacea sp. nov.
(Fig. 5; Table 3)
Material examined. Holotype: MZUSP 713 (Fig. 5 A–C,), measured specimen #1, BIOTA Stn 205. Paratypes: MZUSP 685, specimen #14, near BIOTA Stn 205, 15 m; MZUSP 686, #15 [4 colonies], near BIOTA Stn 205, 15 m; MZUSP 715 (Fig. 5 D), BIOTA Stn 205; MZUSP 716, measured specimen #2, BIOTA Stn 211; VMNH 70007, measured specimen #3, BIOTA Stn 205; VMNH 70008, BIOTA Stn 211. Additional material: MZUSP 708, BIOTA Stn 205.
Supplementary video. http://cifonauta.cebimar.usp.br/taxon/ammatophora-arenacea/
Etymology. From Latin arenaceus, of sand, for its habit of encrusting small substrata in sand-bottom areas.
Diagnosis. Characterized by small zooid size, large tubercles at proximal edges of zooids, broad ooecia, and closely connected zooids with tubules between them.
Description. Colony encrusting, unilaminar. Zooids oval in outline, closely connected by tubules, which are sometimes hidden by gymnocystal development. Inside lateral rim of zooids is a beaded cryptocyst. Cryptocyst extending over proximal half of zooid and around the lateral edges of the triangular to bell-shaped opesia which occupies most of the distal half of the zooid. Irregularly shaped calcified tubercles develop at the proximal ends of zooids. Ooecia imperforate, with a convex proximal rim, endooecium not exposed; short in length, but equal to or greater than zooids in width. Polypides with 11 tentacles. Ancestrula similar to later zooids, the proximal margin crenulated.
Remarks. Ammatophora arenacea sp. nov. was found encrusting shell grains and larger pieces of broken mollusk shells in interstitial habitats. The encrusting unilaminar colonies of small zooids with a depressed cryptocyst and large nodular kenozooids, as well as the flattened imperforate ooecium seem to place this species in the genus Ammatophora, along with Ammatophora nodulosa, an Eastern Atlantic species which, according to Hayward & Ryland (1998, p. 200), occupies a similar habitat on offshore shell gravels “where it forms part of a characteristic community of cheilostomate bryozoans adapted for living on the smallest shell substrata.”
The short, often hidden tubules connecting the zooids might indicate a relationship with Mollia. However, unlike Mollia species, the zooids are not attached to the substratum by rhizoids, but are directly attached by the basal wall (although holes, like those for rhizoids are present in the basal wall and can be seen in the broken zooids in Fig. 5 B).
Only one morphologically similar species has been recorded from Brazil (Vieira et al. 2008). Mollia elongata was described by Canu & Bassler (1928b) from deeper-water stations. It has much larger zooids and more voluminous ooecia immersed in the zooid (see Marcus 1949, fig. 18), distinct from other Mollia species. Souto et al. (2010) also noted confusion between some characters of specimens assigned to Mollia and to other Calloporidae, suggesting the need for reexamination of Mollia elongata, which may be more closely related to Ammatophora arenacea.
Distribution. São Paulo state, Brazil.
description: Published as part of Winston, Judith E. & Vieira, Leandro M., 2013, Systematics of interstitial encrusting bryozoans from southeastern Brazil, pp. 101-146 in Zootaxa 3710 (2) on pages 107-108, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3710.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/248125