Taxonomic studies on some Indo‐West Pacific Phidoloporidae (Bryozoa: Cheilostomata)
Systematics and Biodiversity
1(3): 305-326
Publication
Twenty species of Phidoloporidae from the Indo-WestPacific realm are described and illustrated with scanning electron micrography, and taxonomic notes are provided for a further three species. Four new species are described in the genus Iodictyum, two in Reteporella and three in Triphyllozoon. Iodictyum willeyi, I. projectum, I. buchneri and I. receptaculum are shown to represent a single species. Species of Phidoloporidae (commonly known as ‘lace corals’) occur in shelf and coastal environments throughout the world but achieve greatest taxonomic diversity in the tropical southwest Pacific, from whence new species continue to be described. Phidoloporids are morphologically complex and their taxonomy has been hampered by incomplete or inadequate description, and there is a need to review all previously described species. This paper completes a review of the new species described by Harmer (1934), and, together with two previous accounts (Hayward, 1999, 2000), provides descriptions and SEM illustrations of a majority of known Australian species of six genera of ‘lace corals’.