Vibracellina laxibasis Canu & Bassler, 1928

Winston, Judith E. & Vieira, Leandro M., 2013, Systematics of interstitial encrusting bryozoans from southeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 3710 (2), pp. 101-146 : 111-112

Vibracellina laxibasis Canu & Bassler, 1928

( Fig. 8 , Table 6 )

Vibracellina laxibasis Canu & Bassler, 1928a: 23 , pl. 32, fig. 2; Winston & Håkansson 1986: 13, figs 21–24. Vibracellina caribbea Osburn, 1947: 11 , pl. 1, figs 1–2.

Material examined. MZUSP 673, #3 [10 colonies], near BIOTA Stn 205, 15 m; MZUSP 717 ( Fig. 8 ), measured specimen #1, BIOTA Stn 205; VMNH 70009, measured specimen #2, BIOTA Stn 211.

Description. Colonies encrusting sand grains. Colony may completely cover a grain, but does not build a structure that engulfs the grain. Zooids oval, frontal wall membranous, surrounded by a narrow beaded cryptocyst.

Zooids bud round to oval interzooecial vibracula, with a raised tubercle, a figure-eight shaped opesia and palate and long curved vibracular setae, hinging on the central condyles. Brood chambers endozooidal, marked only by a hooded distal thickening of calcification.

Remarks. This is the first record of this species for Brazil. Living Vibracellina colonies can rock sand grains with their vibracula, but do not have the ability to move through the sand that other cupuladriids possess. Distribution. Cape Hatteras to Brazil, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico.

Figures

FIGURE 8. Vibracellina laxibasis (Canu & Bassler, 1928): A, a colony in a crevice of a shell grain. B, skeletal zooids and vibracular chambers. Scale bars: A, 0.5 mm; B, 0.1 mm.