Varunella Wiebach 1974

Varunella Wiebach, 1974

The genus Varunella was proposed by Wiebach (1974) to include species resembling Hyalinella but producing sessoblasts as well as floatoblasts. Colonies are described as growing very close to the substrate, the ectocyst thick, soft and never chitinous, the colony massive in the center but dendritic around the periphery, agglutination among the branches strongly pronounced. Included in this genus are the Indian species Varunella coronifera Wiebach, 1974 and Varunella indorana Wiebach, 1974 as well as Varunella gemmata Wiebach, 1976 from South Africa.

Wiebach seems to make a distinction between his Varunella species and those bryozoans in which the ectocyst is clear and colorless but not necessarily thick and “hard-gelatinous.” A more recent collection of V. coronifera suggests the possibility that the ectocyst may not always be very thick (Nimbalkar et al., not yet published). Moreover, many other species share these features, including Plumatella fungosa, P. vaihiriae, and all of the known Rumarcanella species. Whether the features attributed to Varunella exhibit any variability is difficult to assess, given the small amount of available material. At this time the validity of Varunella seems doubtful.