New Species of Lower-Shelf to Upper-Slope Ctenostome Bryozoans from Pacific Japan, with a Family Range Extension.

Ctenostome bryozoans were collected from depths of 150-300 m in Suruga Bay, the Kumano Sea, and off Sendai Bay on the Pacific coast of Japan. Among these samples were five new species, three of which were epibiotic on other animals. n. sp., found encrusting cirri of the stalked crinoid , was previously reported in Japan as , but differs from the latter in lacking rings on the peristome. n. sp. and n. sp. were epibiotic on the isopod and the pycnogonid , respectively. This is the first record of the genus from Japanese waters. These species differ from previously described species in autozooidal morphology, particularly the dimensions of the autozooidal dilatation, in the presence or absence of the frenaculum, and in the septate junction between the dilatation and pedicel. n. sp., found as erect colonies on pebbles and hydroids collected off Sendai Bay, differs from previously known species in the size and arrangement of the kenozoids in the branch. n. sp., collected southwest of the Izu Peninsula, occurred as small colonies having a peduncle of short kenozooids. This is the first record from the northwestern Pacific for both the genus and the family Clavoporidae. n. sp differs from , the only other species known in the genus, in having the capitulum divided into two parts, and in the length of the kenozooids comprising the peduncle.