Two new species of heavily calcified cyclostome bryozoans from the intertidal of Akkeshi Bay, Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

Cyclostome bryozoans are relatively uncommon in intertidal habitats, where they are subordinate to cheilostomes and ctenostomes. Those that do occur tend to have small colonies that are relatively weakly calcified. Here we describe two new species of intertidal cyclostomes from Akkeshi Bay in northern Japan that are unusual in having large, heavily calcified colonies. One of these – Favosipora ainui sp. nov. – is the first species of this genus recorded from Japan. The second species – Disporella ezoensis sp. nov. – although belonging to a genus well known from Japan and elsewhere globally, is unusual for Disporella in possessing colonies that are vivid red in colour.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:995903E6-9C07-436A-B788-29BDE2FD5A88

Keywords:

• taxonomy
• bryozoan
• Cyclostomata
• intertidal
• Japan

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Matthew H. Dick (Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan) for his help during fieldwork in Akkeshi Bay during the summer season of 2004, and further logistic efforts in the donation of material for examination to the NHMUK. Prof. Shunsuke F. Mawatari (Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan) supervised this study in 2003–2006. The comments of two anonymous reviewers that led to improvements in this paper are gratefully acknowledged.

Additional information

Funding

Some of this research was funded by grants kindly provided by the JSPS, and was partly supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation [basic part, project No 3487 to Dr A.V. Grischenko].