Bonneviella gracilis Fraser, 1939b

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 : 64

Bonneviella gracilis Fraser, 1939b

Bonneviella gracilis Fraser, 1939b: 59 , figs. 1a–c.

Syntypes. BCPM 976-00454-001: Canada, Nunavut, Dease Strait, 25 July 1937, labelled " type "; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00454-002 : Canada, Nunavut, Dease Strait , 25 July 1937; slide.

Lectotype, by present designation. RBCM 976-00454-003 : Canada, Nunavut, Dease Strait, 40 fm (73 m), 25 July 1937, RCMP Vessel St. Roch, dredge, one colony fragment, attached to stolon of another hydroid species, 4 mm high, in good condition, without gonophores, coll. Sgt. H.A. Larsen; slide.

Paralectotypes. BCPM 976-00454-001 : Canada, Nunavut, Dease Strait, 40 fm (73 m), 25 July 1937, RCMP Vessel St. Roch, dredge, several colony fragments, in unsatisfactory condition, without gonophores, coll. Sgt. H .A. Larsen, labelled "type"; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00454-002 : Canada, Nunavut, Dease Strait, 40 fm (73 m), 25 July 1937, RCMP Vessel St. Roch, dredge, one colony fragment, attached to hydrocaulus of a sertulariid, 3 mm high, in good condition, without gonophores, coll. Sgt. H.A. Larsen; slide.

Type locality. Canada, Nunavut: Dease Strait , 68°58’N, 106°20’W, 40 fm (73 m) ( Fraser 1939b).

Current status. Valid, but see Remarks below.

Remarks. In the absence of a type designation of Bonneviella gracilis by Fraser (1939b), a name-bearing type has been selected from syntype material of the species in the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM (BCPM 976- 00454-001; BCPM 976-00454-002). The two samples are part of the same collection, obtained by Sgt. H.A. Larsen aboard the Royal Canadian Mounted Police vessel St. Roch while stuck in the ice in Dease Strait, Nunavut, Canada ( Fraser 1939b). The best of the available specimens, designated here as the lectotype, is one of two colony fragments on a microscope slide (BCPM 976-00454-002). Occurring on the right side of the slide, it is attached to the stolon of another hydroid species. This specimen (RBCM 976-00454-003) consists of a hydrotheca with a largely intact hydranth, together with a hydrothecal pedicel and part of a stolon. The other colony fragment of B. gracilis , attached to a sertulariid on the same slide, is a paralectotype (BCPM 976-00454-002). While also in good condition overall, its hydranth is more deteriorated than that of the lectotype. Additional paralectotypes are fragments of the species in fluid preservative (BCPM 976-00454-001). Although labelled “ type ”, they are now in unsatisfactory condition. No other type material is known to exist.

Fraser (1939b) described this species from sterile specimens overgrowing colonies of a hydroid identified by him as Thuiaria similis ( Sertularia similis Clark, 1877 ). Although currently accepted as valid in WoRMS, studies are needed to confirm the identity of Fraser’s Bonneviella gracilis at the ranks of family, genus, and species.