Pandeidae Haeckel, 1879

Calder, Dale R., 2010, Some anthoathecate hydroids and limnopolyps (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Hawaiian archipelago 2590, Zootaxa 2590 (1), pp. 1-91 : 23

Family Pandeidae Haeckel, 1879

Pandaeidae Haeckel, 1879: 46 [emended to Pandeidae by Bigelow (1913)].

Diagnosis. Filiferan hydroids colonial, generally stolonal, a few having small, erect cormoids, rarely with polysiphonic hydrocaulus; arising from a creeping hydrorhiza, or, in taxa ectoparasitic on fishes and ichthyoparasitic copepods, from a basal plate embedded in tissues of host. Perisarc varying in development; pseudohydrotheca present or absent. Hydranths club-shaped to vasiform to bulbous to tubular; tentacles filiform, usually in one whorl, some taxa with 2–3 whorls, or scattered, or absent; hypostome usually conical; hydranths of parasitic forms degenerate, elongate, atentaculate, and lacking perisarc.

Gonophores usually free medusae, exceptionally as fixed gonophores in certain parasitic forms. Medusae, when present, bell-shaped; apical projection present or absent. Manubrium large, quadrate, with or without peduncle; mouth usually bordered by four lips; oral tentacles absent. Radial canals usually four, rarely eight; centripetal canals usually absent; mesenteries present or absent. Marginal tentacles hollow, filiform, two, four, or more; basal bulbs and ocelli present or absent. Gonads on manubrium, occasionally extending onto radial canals.

Remarks. A taxonomic discussion of the family Pandeidae Haeckel, 1879 , and superfamily Pandeoidea Haeckel, 1879 , has been given previously ( Calder 1988). Bouillon et al. (2006) assigned 25 genera to the family, with 10 of those known only as the medusa stage. Diagnoses of the family and of some 12 genera assigned to it were given by Schuchert (2007), who remarked on the need for a comprehensive phylogenetic review of pandeid genera. Where described, pandeid hydroids are mostly small and quite simple polypoid forms, and offer a paucity of morphological characters for differentiation. Pandeidae , comprising some 75 species, is “probably not monophyletic” ( Daly et al. 2007).