[pROC. Rot. Soc. Victoria 35 (N.S.), Pr. I., 1922]. 



Akt. IX. — Two New Species of Bryozoa. 



By W. M. Bale, F.R.M.S. 



(With Plate VIII.) 

 [Read 13th July, 1922.] 



The two species of Bryozoa to be described belong to the series of 

 forms included by Busk in the genus Catenicella. The members of 

 this genus are among the most abundant of the Bryozoa which are 

 found on our beaches, and are known to seaside visitors as " curly 

 seaweeds." Nearly all of them are found in Australia, and but few 

 elsewhere; none at all in the Northern Hemisphere. In MacGillivray's 

 Catalogue of recent Victorian Polyzoa are comprised about 35 species, 

 including those separated by him under the name Claviporella. The 

 greater number of species were originally described by Busk, others 

 have been added by Wyville Thompson, MacGillivray, Maplestone, and 

 Wilson. Many fossil forms were described by MacGillivray and 

 Maplestone in the publications of this Society, some of them identical 

 with recent forms. 



More recently Levinsen has dismembered the group, assigning a 

 number of new generic names to many of the species, and adopting 

 for the rest the name Catenaria instead of Catenicella. Whether all 

 Levinsen's genera will be accepted is uncertain; for the present I 

 retain the old classincation as given in MacGillivray's Catalogue. 



The two species before us were handed by me to Mr. Bretnall, of 

 the Australian Museum, the only Australian zoologist known to me to 

 be now working on the Bryozoa. Mr. Breliiall intended to describe 

 them, but, unfortunately, illness, the result of war injuries, has tem- 

 porarily interrupted his work, so I have undertaken the task. 



Our first species is a very interesting one. It was among a 

 quantity of material sent to me by Mr. E. H. Matthews, of Largs, 

 South Australia, and it was recognised at first sight as different from 

 any of the known forms. The outstanding difference between it and 

 more familiar forms is that the alae or lateral expansions of the 

 zooecia are perfectly clear and uncalcified, contrasting strongly with 

 the darker more opaque substance of the remainder of the cell. Com- 

 parison with other species, however, shows instances of similar struc- 

 ture, though to a far less extent. In C. plagiostoma and C. inter- 

 media, for example, that portion of the alae which is at the top of the 

 zooecia seems as free from calcareous matter as in the present 

 species; while in other forms, such as C. alata, the alae, though 

 strongly calcified, contain definite areas wholly chitinous. 



Mr. Bretnall informs me that in Levinsen's system this species 

 would come under the proposed genus Pterocella, or may possibly 

 have to be separated as a new genus. After the discoverer I name it 

 Catenicella (or Pterocella) matthewsi. It appears plentiful at Corny 

 Point, Spencer's Gulf, where Mr. Matthews collected it. 



