Fusion of ancestrulae germinated from statoblasts in plumatellid freshwater bryozoans

Upon germination of a statoblast, the shell is split into two valves; a mucous pad which represents the basal portion of the body wall of the incipient zooid or ancestrula then appears from between the valves; lastly, a tiny polypide evaginates at the opposite site. When two or more contiguously located statoblasts (floatoblasts or sessoblasts) of the same species germinate simultaneously, their mucous pads often come into contact with each other. The walls of the mucous pads then disappear in the contact areas, thus uniting the coeloms of the ancestrulae. This type of fusion between mucous pads of statoblast-derived ancestrulae was ascertained in Plumatella emarginata, P. repens, P. casmiana, and Hyalinella punctata. The fusion is clearly species specific, and shows no clone specificity or allogeneic recognition. The fusibility test reported here seems to be a useful method for the examination of conspecificity in plumatellid bryozoans.