Type species: Sertularia chelata Linnaeus, 1758
Description: Colony composed of chains of zooids, either adnate or rising from the substrate, and branching from the frontal or lateral surface of zooids. Zooids are smooth, imperforate and thinly calcified, expanding from a thin proximal tube to a distal part which includes an oval frontal membrane. Avicularia absent. Brood chambers are distinct bivalved chambers, terminal to the distinctive maternal zooids, which are in turn budded frontally from an ordinary zooid. Several embryos may develop simultaneously within the brood chamber. (partly from Hayward & Ryland, 1998)
Most records of Scruparia are from shallow-water or midshelf, but it can occur at greater depths.
This genus includes the species:
(d'Orbigny 1841) | Recent | Cosmopolitan | WoRMS 111539 | |
(Linnaeus 1758) | Recent | Europe, North Atlantic | WoRMS 111540 | |
Hasenbank, 1932 | Recent | Indian Ocean | WoRMS 470395 |
Scruparia ambigua |
Scruparia ambigua - from San Francisco, at the California Academy of Sciences.