External observations on the formation of statoblasts in Plumatella emarginata (Bryozoa, Phylactolaemata)

Using laboratory-grown colonies of Plumatella emarginata, the formation of the floatoblast and the sessoblast was studied. Both types of statoblast develop in the funiculus. Toward the termination of development, the floatoblast secretes a gas and the float chambers are filled with the gas in about 20-30 minutes. The floatoblast thus complete is separated from the funiculus. Until early epidermal-disc-stage, distinction between a floatoblast and a sessoblast is impossible at least morphologically. Toward the late epidermal-disc stage, a future sessoblast becomes larger than a future floatoblast and attaches by its cystigenic side to the cystid. Very often it initially attaches to a lateral wall, then migrates to the basal wall of the cystid. Both the attachment to and the migration along the cystid wall are attained by peritoneal cells covering the sessoblast, specifically by those in the marginal zone of the cystigenic side. The sessoblast is separated from the funiculus precociously, shortly after attachment to the cystid. Then, it produces the capsule, followed by the formation of both the lamella, a homologue of the float in the floatoblast, and the attaching apparatus. Almost all polypides produce floatoblasts (up to 17 in number), but only a small portion of them produce both floatoblasts and sessoblasts. The number of sessoblasts produced by a single polypide is usually not more than 3 but occasionally reaches up to 6. When multiple sessoblasts are formed by a polypide, they are as a rule derived from primordia located adjacently on the funiculus, accordingly successively in a short period, but their arrangement on the basal wall of the cystid does not always correspond to that on the funiculus. Sessoblast formation is never associated with the death of the mother polypide. Ancestrulae derived from statoblasts never produce mature statoblasts, though may undergo gametogenesis. Several mosaic statoblasts consisting of floatoblast- and sessoblast-portions were found in some species of the Plumatellidae. A primordium of the statoblast seems to have a dual ability of differentiating into either a floatoblast or a sessoblast; but little has been known about the mechanism or factors controlling the formation of these two types of statoblasts.