Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e40492. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040492. Epub 2012 Jul 12.
Bugula is a speciose genus of marine bryozoans, represented by both endemic and cosmopolitan species distributed in tropical and temperate waters and important to marine biologists because of the occurrence of many species in harbor and fouling communities, therefore as potential invaders. The southeastern Brazilian coast in the southern Atlantic hosts the highest known diversity of the genus, a status intimately associated with the intensity of collecting efforts.
Morphological data based on the examination of living specimens, scanning electron and light microscopic images, and morphometric analyses were used to assess the diversity of Bugula along the coastal areas of southern, northeastern, and southeastern Brazil. In this study, morphological species boundaries were based mainly on avicularian characters. For two morphologically very similar species, boundaries are partially supported by 16 S rDNA molecular data.
Nine species are newly described from Brazil, as follows: Bugula bowiei n. sp. ( = Bugula turrita sensu Marcus, 1937) from the southern, northeastern, and southeastern coasts; Bugula foliolata n. sp. ( = Bugula flabellata sensu Marcus, 1938), Bugula guara n. sp., Bugula biota n. sp. and Bugula ingens n. sp from the southeastern coast; Bugula gnoma n. sp. and Bugula alba n. sp. from the northeastern coast; Bugula rochae n. sp. ( = Bugula uniserialis sensu Marcus, 1937) from the southern coast; and Bugula migottoi n. sp., from the southeastern and southern coasts.
The results contribute to the morphological characterization and the knowledge of the species richness of the genus in the southwestern Atlantic (i.e., Brazil), through the description of new species in poorly sampled areas and also on the southeastern coast of that country. Additionally, the taxonomic status of the Brazilian specimens attributed to B. flabellata, B. turrita and B. uniserialis are clarified by detailed studies on zooidal and avicularia morphology.
Bugula 是一个种类繁多的海洋苔藓动物属，包括地方性和世界性物种，分布在热带和温带水域，对海洋生物学家来说很重要，因为许多物种出现在港口和污损生物群落中，因此可能是潜在的入侵物种。南大西洋的巴西东南海岸拥有该属已知的最高多样性，这种状态与采集工作的强度密切相关。
基于对活体标本、扫描电子和光学显微镜图像以及形态计量分析的检查，使用形态学数据来评估巴西东南、东北和南部沿海地区的 Bugula 多样性。在这项研究中，形态学种界主要基于羽枝特征。对于两个形态非常相似的物种，种界部分由 16S rDNA 分子数据支持。
本文从巴西新描述了 9 个物种，如下所示：来自南部、东北和东南海岸的 Bugula bowiei n. sp.（=Bugula turrita sensu Marcus，1937）；Bugula foliolata n. sp.（=Bugula flabellata sensu Marcus，1938）、Bugula guara n. sp.、Bugula biota n. sp. 和 Bugula ingens n. sp. 来自东南海岸；来自东北海岸的 Bugula gnoma n. sp. 和 Bugula alba n. sp.；来自南部海岸的 Bugula rochae n. sp.（=Bugula uniserialis sensu Marcus，1937）；以及来自东南和南部海岸的 Bugula migottoi n. sp.。
这些结果有助于通过在采样不足的地区描述新物种以及在该国东南部海岸进行详细的研究，对西南大西洋（即巴西）的该属形态特征和物种丰富度进行描述。此外，通过对羽枝和羽枝形态的详细研究，澄清了巴西标本在 B. flabellata、B. turrita 和 B. uniserialis 中的分类地位。
