Clytia laxa Fraser, 1937b

Calder, Dale R. & Choong, Henry H. C., 2018, Names of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) established by Charles McLean Fraser (1872 - 1946), excluding those from Allan Hancock Expeditions, Zootaxa 4487 (1), pp. 1-83 : 67-68

Clytia laxa Fraser, 1937b

Clytia laxa Fraser, 1937b: 1 , figs. 1a, b.

Syntypes. USNM 43285 : Dominican Republic, Bahía Samaná, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 16 February 1933, 6–14 fm (11–26 m), ca. 12 colonies or colony fragments, up to ca. 4.6 cm high, in fairly good condition, some with gonophores, coll . Paul Bartsch, labelled “ type ” and “ holotype ”; ethanol.

Lectotype, by present designation. USNM 43285 : Dominican Republic, Bahía Samaná, Johnson- Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 16 February 1933, 6–14 fm (11–26 m), one detached colony with hydrorhiza, hydrocaulus, and hydrothecae, ca. 4.6 cm high, in fairly good condition, with gonophores, coll. P. Bartsch; ethanol.

Paralectotypes. USNM 1458871 : Dominican Republic, Bahía Samaná, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 16 February 1933, 6–14 fm (11–26 m), ca. 11 colonies or colony fragments, up to 2.5 cm high, in fairly good condition, some with gonophores, coll. P. Bartsch; ethanol.

USNM 43333 : Dominican Republic, Bahía Samaná, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 16 February 1933, 6–14 fm (11–26 m), several attached (to bryozoans, an antipatharian, and a shell fragment) and detached colonies and colony fragments, up to 4 cm high, in fair to fairly poor condition, some with gonophores, coll. Paul Bartsch; ethanol.

BCPM 976-00380-001: Dominican Republic, Bahía Samaná, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 16 February 1933, 6–14 fm (11–26 m), several colony fragments, in poor condition, with gonothecae, labelled “cotype”; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00380-002 : Dominican Republic, Bahía Samaná, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 16 February 1933, 6–14 fm (11–26 m), two colonies or colony fragments, in relatively poor condition, with gonothecae; slide.

Type locality. Dominican Republic: Bahía Samaná, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 51, 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W, 6–14 fm (11–26 m) ( Bartsch 1933).

Current status. Valid.

Remarks. Fraser’s (1937b) supposed holotype of Clytia laxa (USNM 43285) contained some 12 detached fragments of the species. It is questionable if they are all part of the same colony. The largest and, in our opinion, the best fragment was isolated and designated here as the lectotype. The others, removed to a different bottle and assigned a new collection number (USNM 1458871), are part of the paralectotype series. So too are others of the species from the same station (USNM 43333, BCPM 976-00380-001, BCPM 976-00380-002).

The type locality of Clytia laxa , a species collected during the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition, was listed by Fraser (1937b) as “East coast of Haiti, lat. 19°10’35”N., long. 69°20’45”W.; 15 fathoms.” Meanwhile, the holotype designated by him is currently recorded in the NMNH online database (USNM 43285) as being from Puerto Rico. Neither Haiti nor Puerto Rico is the correct location. Material at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00380-001; BCPM 976-00380-002) was reported to be from “E of Haiti” by Arai (1977), and as “Johnson Hydro Station 51” in the online database of the museum. A label accompanying the syntypes at the NMNH, listed above, repeats the location (“E coast of Haiti”) and the station data (“Lat. 19°10’35”N. Long. 69°20’45”W….fms 15”) but also lists the station as “51”. According to Bartsch (1933), Station 51 of the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition, located at 19°10’35”N, 69°20’45”W and sampled 16 February 1933 with a 6-foot beam trawl at depths of 6–14 fathoms (11–26 m), was in Samaná Bay (Bahía Samaná), Dominican Republic. Many hydroids were said to be present in the sample. That information coincides with a record of material of the species at the NMNH (USNM 43333), which is considered here to be part of the paratype series along with the two collections at the RBCM. Of the three locations variously given for the collection, station data in Bartsch (1933) are taken to be correct here.

Clytia laxa is listed as a valid species in WoRMS. Hydroids identified as C. laxa have been studied recently in Caribbean waters by Galea & Ferry (2015), and described earlier by Galea (2010) as Clytia tottoni ( Leloup, 1935) .