Crisiidae (Bryozoa: Cyclostomata) of Korea

The family Crisiidae Johnston, 1838 consists of approximately 90 species and seven genera worldwide; however, only three species, Bicrisia erecta Mawatari & Mawatari, 1973, Crisia eburneodenticulata Smitt ms in Busk, 1875, and Crisia spissus Chae, Kil, Zágoršek & Seo, 2018, have been reported from Korea so far. Furthermore, two of these species, Bicrisia erecta and Crisia spissus were not reported from Korea until 2018. The erect and fragile bushy colonies of crisiid bryozoans have been analyzed in detail by many scientists over the last 100 years (Silén, 1977). For the precise characterization of crisiid species, it is important to ascertain not only the number of zooids comprising the internodes, but the astogenetic sequence of internodes and the manner of branching (Hayward & Ryland, 1985). The authors exclusively used the morphological characters, such as shape of colony, number of autozooids, shape of pseudopores and gonozooids with ooeciopore for identifying Crisiidae herein. This study aims to clarify the diversity of the Korean crisiids with description of two new species and redescription of two unrecorded species from Korean waters through scanning electron microscope (SEM) illustrations.