Escharella reussiana (Busk, 1859)
Colonies are encrusting, multiserial and sheet-like. The ancestrula and early astogeny have not been described.
Autozooids are elongate, rounded-rhomboidal in outline shape, moderately large, about 0.50-0.70 mm long by 0.35-0.45 mm wide (fide Lagaiij 1952, p. 109). The frontal shield is convex, finely granular and lacks pseudopores but is ringed by numerous small, subcircular areolar pores (these may become obscured by sediment or cement infilling the grooves between the zooids). A broad lyrula projects into the primary orifice which is surrounded by a thick peristome defining a transversely elliptical secondary orifice about 0.06 mm long by 0.12 mm wide. Oral spines are lacking. The ovicell is small, globular, imperforate and has a granular ectooecial surface. Peristomes of ovicellate autozooids are especially well developed.
Avicularia are lacking.
Although this species is assigned to Escharella, it is unusual among species of Escharella in lacking oral spines.
Pliocene, Late Zanclean–Early Piacenzian, Coralline Crag Formation, Suffolk, UK.
Also recorded by Lagaaij (1952) from the Scaldisian of Oosterhout, The Netherlands (see Bishop & Hayward 1989, figs 132-3).