Open AccessRedescription of Alcyonidium mytili Dalyell, 1848 (Bryozoa: Ctenostomatida)
Author(s) -
CADMAN P.S.,
RYLAND J.S.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
zoological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1096-3642
pISSN - 0024-4082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1996.tb00132.x
Subject(s) - zooid , bryozoa , biology , oviparity , firth , confusion , zoology , type locality , deuterostome , ecology , taxonomy (biology) , oceanography , psychology , biochemistry , phylogenetics , gene , psychoanalysis , geology
Reproduction in the ctenostomate bryozoan Alcyonidium mytili Dalyell, 1848, was studied over 2 years, revealing confusion in the literature over the diagnostic characters of the species and incorrect assumptions about the mode of reproduction. The literature is briefly reviewed and an approximate type locality from the Firth of Forth, Scotland, is identified. Alcyonidium mytili is comprehensively redescribed from material collected in the Firth of Forth and from 2 years' collections in the Daugleddau estuary, near Pembroke Dock, South Wales. Zooid and polypide dimensions and modal tentacle number (16) have been determined from large samples. Most importantly A. mytili possesses a conspicuous intertentacular organ when reproductive; is oviparous, with eggs discharged through the intertentacular organ developing into cyphonautes larvae; and has a prolonged winter reproductive period. The contrary indications in the literature are a consequence of confusion with a superficially similar but larviparous species.