Fam. 6. CELLEPORIDAE.
Polyzoarium missive or crustaceous, composed of ovate cells in juxtaposition and arranged, more or less regularly, in linear series, radiating from a central point or line.
21. CELLEPORA, Otho Fabricius.
1. Cellepora bilabiata, n. sp. ?
C. labiata, Lamouroux.
Cells deeply immersed; mouths in some entire and unarmed; in others, with two acuminated conical lips; immediately beneath the apex of the posterior lip a small sessile avicularium. Ovicells subglobular, with a scutiform area on the upper surface, marked with several lines on each side, radiating from a central line.
Habitat: Bass Strait.
Parasitic on several zoophytes. This species to the naked eye exactly resembles C. pumicosa, but on closer examination several important differences will be observable. The cells in C. bilabiata are less rounded and less distinct than in C. pumicosa. As in that species, some of the cells are furnished with an avicularium, and others unprovided with that appendage; and again, some cells support an ovicell, whilst others do not. The mouth of the unarmed cells in both species is more or less circular and plain, but in C. bilabiata, even in the unarmed cells, the mouth is occasionally distinctly bilabiate. In C. pumicosa the avicularium is placed subapically on a solitary posterior obtuse mucro, but in C. bilabiata there are two such processes longer and more pointed, one in front and the other behind the mouth; the avicularium, as in the former case, being placed immediately below the apex of the posterior mucro. The ovicells also differ very much. In C. pumicosa this organ presents several rather large circular spots or perforations ? whilst in C. bilabiata it exhibits a scutiform or horseshoe-shaped area, marked with several transverse lines on each side of a middle longitudinal line.
Fam. 7. GEMELLARIADAE.
Cells opposite, in pairs.