Some shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the central east coast of Florida, USA
Author
Calder, Dale R.
text
Zootaxa
2013
2013-05-14
3648
1
1
72
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3648.1.1
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3648.1.1
1175-5326
5264362
22089255-436A-4DBB-BD93-1D3C8CF281FE
Nemertesia simplex
(
Allman, 1877
)
Fig. 10b, c
Antennularia simplex
Allman, 1877: 34
, pl. 21, figs. 1, 2.
Type
locality.
USA
:
Florida
, off
Alligator Reef
, 86 fathoms (
157 m
) (
Allman 1877: 34
)
.
Voucher material.
Hoskin Reef off Vero Beach,
27°41.4’N
,
79°59.1’W
,
65 m
,
02.vi.1982
,
Johnson-Sea-Link I
, JSL 1197, one colony, up to
9 cm
high, without gonophores,
3.7 cm
high, without gonothecae, coll.
C. Hoskin
,
ROMIZ
B1121
.—
Off Sebastian Inlet,
27°47.2’N
,
79°57.2’W
, 110–
99 m
,
28.vi.1978
, 10-
foot try net
, one colony, up to
46 cm
high, with gonophores, coll.
J. Miller
,
ROMIZ
B1122
.
Remarks
.
Nemertesia simplex
(
Allman, 1877
)
is poorly known. The only original records of the species other than that of
Allman (1877)
, from the Alligator Reef area in the Straits of Florida, are those of
Nutting (1900)
. He reported
N. simplex
in collections taken off Cape Henry, Virginia, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and
Havana
,
Cuba
, during
Albatross
cruises, and from the Pourtalès Plateau (Straits of Florida) in material from the 1893
Bahamas
Expedition of the State University of Iowa. Moreover, the only illustrations of the species prior to now are the two of
Allman (1877)
. Nutting included a copy of Allman’s magnified figure of the species in his monograph on plumularioids but gave no illustrations of his own material. The present record from the east coast of Florida falls within the stated geographic and bathymetric range (48–373 fathoms =
88–682 m
) of the species.
Characters differentiating
N. simplex
from its congeners were tabulated by
Ramil & Vervoort (2006)
. They upheld opinions of
Allman (1877)
and
Nutting (1900)
that it has affinities with
N. ramosa
(
Lamarck, 1816
)
. Both have monomeric or mostly monomeric hydrocladia. Morphological differences distinguishing
Nemertesia simplex
from
N. ramosa
include the following: (1) the hydrocaulus is monosiphonic and unbranched or only slightly branched rather than polysiphonic and much branched; (2) hydrothecal margins tend to slope at an oblique angle to the axis of the hydrocladium rather than being perpendicular to it. Gonothecae, of the usual
type
in this genus (
Ramil & Vervoort 2006
), are quite small, ovoid, and with an oblique aperture (
Nutting 1900
). They arise from apophyses of the hydrocladia.
Reported distribution.
Atlantic coast of
Florida
. First record.
Western Atlantic. Offshore
waters of
Virginia
to the
Gulf
of
Mexico
(
Nutting 1900
)
.