Family CYCLICOPORIDAE Hincks, 1884

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Introduction

Hincks (1884) introduced the family Cyclicoporidae for a monospecific new genus, Cyclicopora, from Port Phillip, Victoria. Hincks's species C. praelonga is a junior synonym of Lepralia longipora MacGillivray (1883) from. the same locality. In the Prodromus volume, MacGillivray (1886) later placed Hincks's C. praelonga in synonymy with C. longipora. Bock (1982) figured Victorian material, and noted that the species was quite common.

Colonies of C. longipora form greyish-white, shining encrustations on shells, rocks and other bryozoans and are characterised by their long autozooids and large rounded orifices. The frontal shield is pierced by numerous pseudopores, except for the area around the orifice, which is slightly raised and imperforate. The ovicells are large, hyperstomial and may be elongate or globular; their frontal calcification is pierced by minute pores and is tuberculate. The orifice of the ovicelled zooids variously larger than that of the autozooids. Bock (1982) figured ovicells with a wide, short orifice, but those figured by Hincks (1884) and MacGillivray (1883, 1886) were rounder. Avicularia are absent.

C. longipora has been reported to occur from California to the Galapagos by Osburn (1952), who figured zooids with an almost circular orifice, and mentioned erect branching colonies, unlike those of Australian C. longipora. Erect bilaminar colonies were also described by Canu & Bassler (1929) in a species of Cyclicopora they described from the Hokkaido region, Japan, as Monoporella ? waipukurensis (Waters). The family has no Australian fossil record, although a specimen from New Zealand has been identified as C. longipora (Brown 1952).

Diagnosis

Colony moderately calcified, encrusting, zooids very long with large rounded orifices. The frontal shield is lepralioid, and has numerous pseudopores. Avicularia are absent. Ovicells are very large, hyperstomial and globular. The frontal calcification is porous and tuberculate.

General References

Bock, P.E. 1982. Bryozoans (Phylum Bryozoa). pp. 319-394 in Shepherd, S.A. & Thomas, I.M. (eds). Marine Invertebrates of Southern Australia. Handbook of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia Adelaide : Government Printer Part 1 491 pp.

Brown, D.A. 1952. The Tertiary cheilostomatous Polyzoa of New Zealand. London : Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) 405 pp.

Canu, F., & Bassler, R.S. 1929. Bryozoa of the Philippine region. United States National Museum Bulletin 100: 1-685

Hincks, T. 1884. Contributions towards a general history of the marine Polyzoa. XIII. Polyzoa from Victoria and Western Australia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 5 13: 363-369; 14: 276-285

Macgillivray, P.H. 1883. Descriptions of new or little-known Polyzoa. Part 2. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 19: 130-138

Macgillivray, P.H. 1886. Polyzoa. 63-73, pls 116-118 in McCoy, F. (ed.). Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria Decade 12. Melbourne : George Robertson.

Osburn, R.C. 1952. Bryozoa of the Pacific coast of America, Part 2. Cheilostomata - Ascophora. Report of the Allan Hancock Pacific Expeditions 14: 271-611

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