Like the brachiopods, they are filter-feeders using a ring of ciliated tentacles called a
lophophore. However, unlike brachiopods, they are not enclosed within paired shells but construct chitinous tubes.
These specimens were dissected, and the
lophophore tissue samples were used for C value analysis, as follows.
The theatrical company
Lophophore will present their show "Les Chuchoteurs de Mots" ("The Words Whisperers"), in which a blindfolded man will whisper a text chosen by the audience from three possible books, creating a one-of-a-kind performance where only the voice matters.
Intraspecific variation in larval size and its effects on juvenile
lophophore size in four bryozoans.
Scientists have presumed that the larger brachiopods have a food-intake handicap, reasoning that the bigger the brachiopod, the smaller the surface area of its filter-feeding organ, or
lophophore, in relation to the animal's overall volume.
Finally, Temkin (1994) reported that spermatozeugmata released from the bryozoan Membranipora membranacea experienced periods of quiescence while in the water column and only commenced strong undulating movements when contacting tentacles of a
lophophore. It remains possible that the observed mixing documented in our study resulted not only from larval dispersal, but also from long-distance sperm dispersal, whereby sperm were released at one site and passively transported among other sites.
The tentacle length was approximately 600 [micro]m with
lophophore that had a slightly oval horseshoe shaped single row of tentacles (Fig 1).
We observed an avicularium stab a newly settled veliger crawling on the colony and saw the
lophophore of a bryozoan take in a swimming veliger, causing the latter to retract its velum and sink to the bottom of the culture dish.
Schuchert & Cooper (1932, p.37) proposed the terms "brachiophores" and "brachiophore plates" for "the structures on either side of the notothyrium which bound the sockets and to which was attached the elongate brachiophore process; to the latter in turn was fastened the
lophophore. In some genera the brachiophores are supported dorsally by plates, and to these the name brachiophore plates or support is given." This is supplemented by further morphological characters, together distinguishing ten "types of brachiophores" (1932, pp.
Maternal zooids with reproductive ovicells attached also possess a feeding
lophophore, and the resource requirements of the developing embryo might instead be met through increased feeding intensity by the
lophophore within the maternal zooid.
For instance, Silen (1966) showed that for two species of the genus Electra, sperm were released through the tips of certain tentacles of the
lophophore. By "spermcasting" (Bishop and Pemberton, 2006), sperm can presumably be transferred to a different colony for fertilization, although the uptake of this sperm by another zooid of the same colony may also be possible.
The
lophophore, or feeding tentacles, of the soft-bodied feeding animal can retract into the chitinous cuticle in response to physical or chemical disturbance (Woollacott and Zimmer, 1977), but B.