Oswaldella curiosa Peña Cantero and Vervoort, 1998

Peña Cantero, A. L. & Vervoort, W., 2004, Species of Oswaldella Stechow, 1919 (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Kirchenpaueriidae) from US Antarctic expeditions, with the description of three new species, Journal of Natural History 38, pp. 805-861 : 822-823

Oswaldella curiosa Peña Cantero and Vervoort, 1998

Oswaldella curiosa Peña Cantero and Vervoort, 1998: 35–39 , figure 2; Peña Cantero and García Carrascosa, 1999: 214; Peña Cantero and Marques, 1999: 85.

Material examined. 6/428, three stems up to 35 mm high.

Remarks. The material of this species was previously described and figured by Peña Cantero and Vervoort (1998). Oswaldella curiosa is well characterized, especially by the shape of the hydrotheca, since it is the only known species of the genus with a completely abcaudally directed hydrothecal aperture. It is also characterized by the absence of mesial inferior nematothecae in the hydrocladial internodes, the absence of a node between cauline apophyses and hydrocladia, and by the presence of a single axillary nematophore in the cauline apophyses (cf. table 1).

Ecology and distribution. Oswaldella curiosa is known only from the Bransfield Strait area, where it was collected at depths between 662 and 1120 m in January (Peña Cantero and Vervoort, 1998).