Family WALKERIIDAE Hincks, 1880

Museums

Regional Maps

• Valkeriidae Hincks, T.H. 1880. A history of the British Marine Polyzoa. London : John van Voorst 601 pp. [551].

Introduction

The family Walkeriidae was introduced by Hincks (1880) in the British Marine Polyzoa, for a northern species, Valkeria uva. Records of species of Walkeria are often referred to Valkeria or to the genus Farrella in the literature. Farrella differs in details of its budding pattern and in producing planktotrophic larvae (Hayward 1985).

Walkeria is characterised by its inconspicuous, creeping stolons and pairs of peduncle kenozooids. Busk (1886) described Walkeria atlantica (as Farrella) from Brazil. The autozooids are budded singly or in pairs. Colonies sometimes form small clumps of autozooids; this occurs if chains of lateral kenozooidal peduncles are budded. The lophophore has 8 long tentacles and larvae are brooded in the autozooid vestibule (Harmer 1915).

W. atlantica has been reported from the western tropical Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, as well as from the East Indies. The Australian distribution is based on a single record from Low Island on the Great Barrier Reef, given by Hastings (1932).

Diagnosis

Colony creeping, inconspicuous, formed by uniserial, branching kenozooids which bud small pairs of kenozooids, developed in groups, each of which buds an autozooid. Larvae brooded in the zooidal vestibule.

General References

Busk, G. 1886. Polyzoa (Part II). Cyclostomata, Ctenostomata, and Pedicellinea. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger 1873–1876, Zoology 17: viii, 47

Harmer, S.F. 1915. The Polyzoa of the Siboga Expedition. Part 1. Entoprocta, Ctenostomata and Cyclostomata. Siboga-Expéditie Report 28A: 1-180

Hastings, A.B. 1932. The Polyzoa, with a note on an associated hydroid. Scientific Reports of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928-1929 4(12): 399-458

Hayward, P.J. 1985. Ctenostome Bryozoans. pp. 1-169 in Kermack, D.M. & Barnes, R.S.K. (eds). Synopses of the British Fauna. n.s London : E.J. Brill for the Linnean Society Vol. 33.

Hincks, T.H. 1880. A history of the British Marine Polyzoa. London : John van Voorst 601 pp.

History of changes