Suhius n. gen.

Type species. Hippothyris rubescentis Liu in Liu, Yin & Ma, 2001, by monotypy.

Etymology. Honorific for Dr Chang-Hoon Suh, chairman of Woosuk University, Korea, in recognition of his service to the university.

Diagnosis. Colony encrusting, unilaminar. Autozooids quincuncial with distinct margins. Orifice hoof-shaped, more or less parallel-sided, with broad, concave poster and stout condyles. No oral spines. Frontal shield nonpseudoporous, hummocky, with many marginal areolar pores. Ooecium acleithral, with fully calcified ectooecium and scattered ectooecial pseudopores; encroaching secondary calcification from neighbouring zooids forming low crests and nodules at fusion points, concealing pseudopores. Avicularia adventitious with complete crossbars, variable in size and disposition, typically lateral-oral in many younger zooids, larger and frontal in older zooids. Multiporous mural septula in lateral walls. Ancestrula tatiform.

Remarks. The combination of characters in Suhius n. gen. is distinctive. On the one hand, the orifice is hoofshaped as in Hippoporella Canu, 1917 and some other genera of superfamily Celleporoidea, which explains why Androsova (1959) misattributed the type species to Hippoporella hippopus (Smitt, 1868b). On the other hand, the ooecium when first formed is typical of genera of superfamily Smittinoidea, with a smoothly calcified perforated ectooecium. Accordingly, Liu et al. (2001) included the type species in the Bitectiporidae, a family of Smittinoidea in which the frontal shields and ooecia resemble those of many Smittinidae but the orifices are non-lyrulate (Gordon 1984). Liu et al. ’s (2001) attribution of the species to Hippothyris Osburn, 1952 recognized the similarities between the two genera, but the type species of Hippothyris, Hippothyris emplastra Osburn, 1952 from deep water off Baja California, has only a small suboral avicularium, a discrete imperforate area of frontal shield surrounded by numerous pseudopores and an ectooecium with numerous pseudopores that never become wholly concealed by secondary calcification.