Tarsocryptus, Tilbrook, Kevin J., 2011

Tilbrook, Kevin J., 2011, New genus for a unique species of Indo-West Pacific bryozoan, Zootaxa 3134, pp. 63-67 : 64

Genus Tarsocryptus n. gen.

Type species. Biflustra laboriosa Tilbrook, 2006 (nomen novum for Biflustra reticulata Tilbrook, Hayward & Gordon, 2001 , a junior homonym).

Diagnosis. Colony encrusting, membraniporiform. Well-developed zooidal cryptocyst covered in a raised reticulate ornamentation, and minimal gymnocyst proximally though varying in extent; calcified basal wall can be partially lacking. Ovicells, spines, avicularia, and other heteromorphs absent. Cyphonautes larvae producing a single ancestrula.

Etymology. Greek, tarsos, woven mat; kryptos, hidden, alluding to the reticulate calcification on the proximal cryptocyst.

Remarks. The new genus is erected for the type species which, as outlined above, is not easily assigned to any existing genus.

The family Membraniporidae was once treated as a ‘catch-all’ for species with little or no frontal-wall calcification. Few of the species previously assigned to this family had any accompanying information about their larvae. Taylor & Monks (1997) restricted the family to those genera whose species produced a twinned ancestrular complex upon the metamorphosis of a cyphonautes larva. As Tarsocryptus laboriosa produces a single ancestrula from a cyphonautes larva it is automatically excluded from the Membraniporidae . The Electridae is thought of as a paraphyletic taxon, but there are many similarities within species of genera assigned to this family, such as an extensive gymnocyst, production of spines, and kenozooids; but there are exceptions to all of these, e.g. no extensive gymnocyst in Conopeum Gray, 1848 , no spines in Pyripora d'Orbigny, 1852 and no kenozooids in Aspidelectra Levinsen, 1909 . Tarsocryptus laboriosa is here assigned to the Electridae ; however, this is only a tentative assignation subject to a comprehensive reassessment using both morphological and genetic data from the type species of each genus currently assigned to it.