Monoporella nodulifera has been reported from widely distributed regions, including the Mediterranean, Australia, and the Kermadec Islands. The illustration is a specimen from southern Australia. It is clearly not conspecific with the specimens illustrated from the Mediterranean.
![[Image of Monoporella nodulifera]](monoporella_nodulifera.jpg) |
The genus is one of the few among the anascans with a very restricted, semicircular opesia, of similar size to the operculum (which has been removed from the skeleton before imaging this specimen). In this species the pair of opesiules, for the passage of parietal muscles, are not conspicuous. The ovicell is notable: larvae escape to the surrounding water through the pair of slits on the sides of the ovicell, seen here as elongate depressions on the neighbouring zooids. The 'nodules' on each side of the opesia have a central pore: the function of this is unknown |
Original description: Haploporella nodulifera Hincks, 1881.
Locality: Bass Strait, Australia.
Holotype: BMNH 1899.5.1.742
Description from Tilbrook, 2006. (PDF file)
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