Family SCRUPARIIDAE Gray, 1848

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Introduction

The family Scrupariidae includes the genus Scruparia Oken, the name of which has been reinstated by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Scruparia is characterised by its creeping habit, with stolon-like elongated zooids or kenozooids growing over the substratum, giving rise to short, uniserial erect chains of autozooids. The zooids are all slender, horn-shaped, with a long tubular gymnocyst and oval opesia. Ten to twelve tentacles have been reported, and a short setigerous collar is present (Banta et al. 1995). Brooding zooids are budded frontally, from the gymnocyst proximal to the opesia of an autozooid. They have a globular, bivalved ovicell distally which may contain as many as 7 embryos at one time. The modified type of coronate larva closely resembles that of the ctenostome, Flustrellidra , but has no valves (Zimmer & Woollacott 1977). The ancestrulae of both S. chelata and S. ambigua have been described by Hastings (1941). The ancestrula of S. ambigua becomes attached to the substratum by an encrusting distal and frontal buds; that of S. chelata produces a distal anchoring rhizoid, as well as frontal and proximal zooid bud.

S. ambigua is known to have a very wide distribution, including New Zealand and Australia (Bock 1982; Gordon & Mawatari, 1992), and was mentioned as occurring from the Patagonian shelf and Falkland Islands by Hayward (1995). Most records of S. chelata are from Europe and the Mediterranean, but it has been confused with S. ambigua, and may have a wider range; it was reported from near Heard Island by d'Hondt (1984). Scruparia species are not conspicuous, and the small colonies may occur on algae, shell, hydroids and other bryozoans from the shallow littoral and subtidal down to 50 m or more (Hayward & Ryland 1998).

Lopez Gappa (1986) has introduced the genus Brettiopsis from Antarctica and assigned it to the Scrupariidae. The presence of avicularia suggests that it may be more conveniently accommodated within the Bugulidae.

Diagnosis

Colonies of creeping chains of discrete zooids or kenozooids, with scattered erect series. Zooids expand from a narrow tubular proximal part to a domed central part with an oval frontal opesia. Zooids are poorly calcified; budding of zooids may be from the distal margin of the zooid or from the proximal side of the opesia. Brooding is in a bivalved ovicell distal to a specialised maternal zooid.

General References

Banta, W.C., Perez, F.M., & Santagata, S. 1995. A setigerous collar in Membranipora chesapeakensis n. sp. (Bryozoa): implications for the evolution of cheilostomes from ctenostomes. Invertebrate Biology 114: 83-88

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.

D'Hondt, J.-L. 1984. Nouvelle contribution a la connaissance des Bryozoaires marins des terres australes françaises. Comité national français des Recherches Antarctiques 55: 95-116

Gordon, D.P., & Mawatari, S.F. 1992. Atlas of marine-fouling Bryozoa of New Zealand ports and harbours. Miscellaneous publications of the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute 107: 1-52

Hastings, A.B. 1941. The British species of Scruparia (Polyzoa). Annals and Magazine of Natural History 11 7: 465-472

Hayward, P.J. 1995. Antarctic cheilostomatous Bryozoa. Oxford, New York, Tokyo : Oxford University Press 355 pp.

Hayward, P.J. & Ryland, J.S. 1998. Cheilostomatous Bryozoa. Part 1. Aeteoidea - Cribrilinoidea. In, Barnes, R.S.K. & Crothers, J.H. (eds). Synopses of the British Fauna. n.s Shrewsbury : Field Studies Council. Vol. 10 pp.

Lopez Gappa, J.J. 1986. A new bryozoan genus from the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Polar Biology 6: 103-105

Zimmer, R.L., & Woollacott, R.M. 1977. Structure and Classification of Bryozoan Larvae. pp. 57-89 in Woollacott, R.M., & Zimmer, R.L. (eds). Biology of Bryozoans. New York : Academic Press xvii 566 pp.

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