Document of bibliographic reference 364003

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Epibiotic association of encrusting cheilostome bryozoans on shells of an invasive mussel from rocky shores of South Africa, with the description of a new aviculiferous species of Chaperia

Abstract

Rocky shores typically exhibit a variety of sedentary and free-moving forms of epibionts associated with the shells of mussel basibionts. This paper provides a first report on epibiotic bryozoans found on shells of the invasive Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck. More than 2500 mussels were collected between December 2019 and October 2020 from rocky shores during low spring tides across the south–southeast coast of South Africa. Ten percent of these mussels hosted epibiotic bryozoans. We examined a subset of these epibiotised mussels to assess the diversity of bryozoans. Three encrusting cheilostome species were identified: Chaperia atypica n. sp., Celleporella hyalina (Linnaeus), and Hippomonavella sp. This new species is the first Chaperia with avicularia and the first South African species with ooecia. This study highlights the biological diversity of epibiotic bryozoans on mussel shells and, given their differences in microtopography, the possibility that invasive species can provide a new substratum for rare, overlooked or undescribed species of epibionts.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000967860800002

Bibliographic citation

Boonzaaier-Davids, M.K.; Ma, K.C.K.; McQuaid, C.D. (2023). Epibiotic association of encrusting cheilostome bryozoans on shells of an invasive mussel from rocky shores of South Africa, with the description of a new aviculiferous species of Chaperia. Zootaxa 5258(2): 197-210. https://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5258.2.2

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true