New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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A new ctenostome bryozoan ectosymbiotic with terminal-moult paddle crabs (Portunidae) in New Zealand

DENNIS P. GORDON

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research
P. O. Box 14-901
Kilbirnie, Wellington
New Zealand

ROBERT G. WEAR

School of Biological Sciences
Victoria University of Wellington
P. O. Box 600
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract  Triticella capsularis sp. nov. (Bryozoa, Ctenostomata) is newly described as an ectosymbiont of paddle crabs (Ovalipes catharus) in central New Zealand (Bay of Plenty to northern South Island). The bryozoan produces the longest zooids known in the genus Triticella, with colonies forming a "fur" up to almost 10 mm thick on large crabs, mostly males. The densest area of colonisation is the ventral anterior half of the crab. The bryozoan lives only on O. catharus and probably benefits from its "messy" and voracious feeding habits, opportunities for gene exchange during crab swarming behaviour, and dispersal. There is no synchrony between reproduction of the bryozoan and moulting cycles of the crab, as the bryozoan achieves reproductive colony size only on old terminal-moult crabs. Although visually striking when dense, the bryozoan growth is only superficial and affects neither the behaviour of the crab nor the quality of its meat.

Keywords  Bryozoa; Ctenostomata; Triticellidae; Triticella; new species; symbiosis; paddle crab; Ovalipes catharus; New Zealand

Z99003
Received 13 February 1999; accepted 11 June 1999

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (2301K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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