GLOBIPELORHIZA SUBLITrORALIS GEN. ET SP. N., A KOMOKIACEAN (PROTOZOA: FORAMINIFERIDA) FROM THE SCANDINAVI AN SUB LITTORAL TOMAS CEDHAGEN & STEFAN MATISON SARSIA CEDHAGEN, TOMAS & STEFAN MATTSON 1991 11 13. Globipelorhiza sublittoralis gen . et sp. n., a komokiacean (Protozoa: Foraminiferida) from the Scandinavian sublittoral. - Sarsia 76:209-213. Bergen. ISSN 0036-4827. Globipelorhiza sublittoralis was collected at 60-721 m depth. This includes the first reli- able records of a komokiacean from the sublittoral. The species has granuloreticular pseudopodia, which is evidence that the Komokiacea belongs to the Granuloreticulosea. It gathers detritus with its pseudopodia, and the bacterial growth on the detritus probably constitutes its main food. The burrowing and pseudopodial movements of G. sublittoralis are much slower than in other sublittoral foraminiferans. This and other observations sug- gest that komokiaceans have a low metabolic rate, and are adapted to environments with low bioturbation activity. Tomas Cedhagen and Stefan MatlSon, University of Goteborg, Department of Zoology, Division of Morphology and Ecology, P.D. Box 25059, S-400 31 GOleborg, Sweden. INTRODUCTION Certain marine protozoans, such as komokiaceans and xenophyophores, are frequently overlooked in sediment samples, partly because they are so fragile that they are easily fragmented by conventional sampling methods, and partly because they are not recognized as organisms, or parts of such (TENDAL 1972, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985; TENDAL & HESSLER 1977 ; GOODAY & TENDAL 1988). Such organisms are therefore likely to be discovered only where other biological material is scarce, and this may be the reason why they are almost exclusively known from great depths (TENDAL 1975). Globipelorhiza sublit- toralis is fragile and resembles a ball of clay after conventional sampling and sieving, which makes it liable to neglect in the rich sublittoral material in which it is found . The species was collected at . 60-721 m depth. This includes the first reliable records of a komokia- cean from the sub littoral. The shallowest earlier record of a komokiacean is an unreliable one from 180 m depth, and the upper distributional limit of the group has been supposed to be at about 1000 m depth (TENDAL & HESSLER 1977) . MATERIAL AND METHODS The material includes 10 specimens from Kosterfjorden (58°52'27" N, 11°06'24" E) , Swedish west coast, collected with an epibenthic sledge (intermediate in design between that of OCKELMANN (1964) and that of HESSLER & SAN- DERS (1967)) on 10 October 1989 ; depth: 60 m; bottom: compact clay with much silt. One specimen from Single- fjorden (59°05'33" N, 11°07'42" E), between Sweden and Norway, epibenthic sledge, 18 February 1986 , 68-84 m. One specimen from Korsfjorden N, 5OZ0 ' E), Norway , epibenthic sledge, 28 November 1983 , 250-450 m. Two specimens from Tysfjorden (68°10' N, 16°11 .2' E), northern Norway, epibenthic sledge, 31 Au- gust 1983 , 721 m. We also sampled for G. sublittoralis in those clayey bottoms that surround the Kosterfjorden locality and have a lower silt content, but found no specimens. The specimens were fixed in 4 % formalin buffered with disodium tetraborate. Two specimens were sub- merged in New (Betlehem Trading Co.), em- bedded in paraffin, cut into 7 pm sections, and stained with Ehrlich's hematoxylin-eosin. The slides were studied by ordinary light and interference contrast microscopy. Two specimens of Astrammina sphaerica (HERoN-ALLEN & EARLAND, 1932) were collected in Kosterfjorden, as described above, and prepared similarly for comparison. Twenty specimens from Kosterfjorden and Gullmarsfjor- den (58°16'38" N, 11 OZ9'30" E) were dissected under a dis- section microscope . We use the terminology of TENDAL & HESSLER (1977) for komokiacean structures. However, we do not use the ambiguous term 'tubul e', but introduce the term 'proto- plasmic string' for a string-formed part of the sarcode, and 'branch' for each structure composed of protoplasmic string and surrounding agglutinated layer. ' Outer branch' is that part of a branch which protrudes from the central part of the body ('central body'), if a central body is pre- sent. Five live specimens of G. sublittoralis were observed with a dissection microscope. One was placed in aquarium on pure clay, and two on silt covered with a 1 mm layer of detritus. Two specime ns were placed in a glass jar con- taining the latter type of bottom. The pseudopodia of four specimens were studied with an inverted microscope after the specimens had become acclimatized. 209