Review of freshwater Bryozoa (Phylactolaemata) of Central Africa with descriptions of two new species

The Royal Museum of Central Africa at Tervuren, Belgium, includes a small collection of freshwater bryozoans from Congo and Rwanda. Included are: Plumatella philippinensis with both statoblast types, as well as holotypes of Plumatella ruandensis Wiebach, 1964, Plumatella marlieri Wiebach, 1970, and Plumatella pseudostolonata Borg, 1940. There are also two new species which had been previously misidentified: specimens designated as Plumatella javanica are now recognized as P. wiebachi n. sp.; and specimens labeled Stolella indica now recognized as Plumatella kisalensis n. sp. This paper includes full descriptions of the new species as well as fresh descriptions and illustrations of other species in the collection.

An assessment of bryozoan (Phylactolaemata) fauna of Kagzipura Lake, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

Freshwater Bryozoa is one of the less explored or ignored animal groups from India. Kagzipura Lake, a rainwater fed water body was surveyed for three years to understand the diversity and distribution of bryozoan fauna. The present study depicts four Phylactolaemata bryozoans species as Rumarcanella vorstmani, Plumatella casmiana, Lophopodella carteri and Swarupella divina. The manuscript provides brief descriptions of these species, photomicrographs of statoblasts using scanning electron microscopy and colony characteristics.

Freshwater Bryozoa of Okinawa, Japan, with descriptions of Rumarcanella gen. nov. (Phylactolaemata: Plumatellidae) and two new species

We identified nine species of phylactolaemate bryozoans collected from ponds and dams on Okinawa Island, Japan. This is the first report on freshwater bryozoans from Okinawa and includes the first record of Plumatella javanica from Japan. Phylactolaemate species were identified on the basis of colony and statoblast morphology and are illustrated by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We detected two new plumatellid species that, like Plumatella minuta and Plumatella vorstmani, have a transparent, weakly chitinized colony and hypertubercles on the floatoblast fenestra. A previous molecular study showed these four species to form a clade separate from Plumatella and Hyalinella. We here establish the new genus Rumarcanella to accommodate these species and describe Rumarcanella gusuku n. sp. and R. yanbaruensis n. sp. We discuss the dispersal of bryozoans to and from Japan by birds carrying statoblasts and provide a key to the Phylactolaemata of Japan.