Clytia paulensis ( Vanhöffen, 1910 )

Gil, Marta, Ramil, Fran & Agís, José Ansín, 2020, Hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from Mauritanian Coral Mounds, Zootaxa 4878 (3), pp. 412-466 : 455

Clytia paulensis ( Vanhöffen, 1910)

Clytia paulensis: Ramil & Vervoort, 1992: 239 , fig. 67C–D; Cornelius, 1995b: 258–260, fig. 59; Medel & Vervoort, 2000: 39–41; Vervoort, 2006: 271–272; Galea, 2007: 89–90 ; fig. 20J–L.

Material examined. MSM 16 /3, stn GeoB 14908–1, ROV, 17°40.213’– 17°40.191’N, 16°40.829’– 16°40.289’W, 463–574 m, 16-XI-2010: two colonies, one of them attached to Acesta excavata ; no gonothecae .

Biology. This species is usually found growing on hydroids and on algae and other invertebrates ( Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa 2002; Vervoort 2006; Galea 2007). Fertile material has been found from April to August ( Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa 2002).

In our material, one colony was growing on the bivalve A. excavata .

Distribution. Clytia paulensis is a circumglobal species widely distributed in the East Atlantic, from England to South Africa ( Medel & Vervoort 2000; Galea 2007). In West Africa, it was collected from Morocco ( Ramil & Vervoort 1992), Canary Islands ( Medel &Vervoort 2000; Vervoort 2006), Cape Verde ( Medel & Vervoort 2000) and Guinea-Bissau ( Gili et al. 1989). Its bathymetric range stretches from 0 to 422 m (Ramil 1988; Gil & Ramil 2017a).

Our material was collected from depths of 463 to 574 m, increasing its bathymetric range down to 574 m.

Remarks. The small hydrothecae and bidentate cups on the hydrothecal border are diagnostic features for the identification of this species.