A new species of the cheilostome bryozoan Trematooecia Osburn, 1940 from the Mediterranean Sea

摘要

Although missing from a standard identification guide to bryozoans of the Mediterranean Sea, the warm water cheilostome bryozoan Trematooecia is shown to be present in this sea. A new species, T. ligulata Ayari & Taylor sp. nov., is here described using material from the Aegean, the Gulf of Tunis and Alexandria. It differs from T. turrita (Smitt, 1873), with which it had been previously confused in the collections of the NHM, London, principally in having an ovicell with a long median foramen. The existence of this new Mediterranean bryozoan underscores our incomplete knowledge of the Mediterranean bryofauna.