Genus Massilina

 

Genus Massilina Schlumberger, 1893  

 
Description by Loeblich and Tappan (1964): Test free, ovate in outline, somewhat flattened, proloculus followed by chambers one-half coil in length, early ones in quinqueloculine arrangement, later chambers added in single plane on alternate sides; wall calcareous, porcelaneous, imperforate; aperture at open end of final chamber, with bifid tooth.
 

 
 

Massilina pulchra Cushman and Gray, 1946

 
Massilina pulchra Cushman and Gray, 1946, p. 65, pl. 12, figs 1a, b; Cushman and Todd, 1947, p. 6, pl. 1, fig. 22; Lankford and Phleger, 1973, p. 125, pl. 2, figs. 7a, b;  McGann, 2007, p. 57, pl. 9, fig. X.
 
 
Description: Test strongly compressed, periphery acute or slightly keeled, early portion quinqueloculine, adult planispiral; chambers distinct, very slightly inflated; in the adult the planispiral portion with the final chamber less than half a coil in length; sutures distinct, slightly depressed; wall ornamented with costae which are distinctly oblique to the periphery and slightly curved; aperture oblong with a large narrow tooth and a slightly thickened lip.  Diameter up to 2.15 mm; thickness up to 0. 40 mm.
 
 
Remarks: M. pulchra has an epiphytic habit living on low intertidal to subtidal plant holdfasts.
 
 
Distribution: This species is rare in our Puget Sound samples, probably because there are no  intertidal or very shallow subtidal sampling sites. It has been found in Hood Canal and the southernmost inlets of the Sound.