Campanularia abyssa Fraser, 1940a

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 : 65

? Campanularia abyssa Fraser, 1940a

? Campanularia abyssa Fraser, 1940a: 576 , pl. 32, figs. 2a, b.

Holotype. USNM 43434 : USA, Massachusetts, SE of Nantucket Shoals , Albatross Sta. 2041, 39°22’50”N, 68°25’W, 19 July 1883, deep sea trawl, several detached fragments of what is likely a single colony, the longest of them 2 cm high, in fairly poor condition, without gonophores, labelled “ type ”; ethanol.

Type locality. USA, Massachusetts: continental slope SE of Cape Cod , 39°22’50”N, 68°25’W, 1608 fm (2941 m) ( Fraser 1940a).

Current status. Valid, but see Remarks below.

Remarks. A specimen at the NMNH (USNM 43434) was designated by Fraser (1940a) as the “ type ” of Campanularia abyssa . That hydroid is recorded as a holotype in the NMNH online database (ICZN Art. 73.1.1). No specimens of the species were listed as part of the Fraser Hydroid Collection by Arai (1977), and no records of it exist in the RBCM online database.

Fraser (1940a) provisionally assigned C. abyssa to the genus Campanularia Lamarck, 1816 , but was uncertain it was even referable to the family Campanulariidae Johnston, 1837 . No gonosome was present and its identity remains obscure, although it seems more likely to be a lafoeoid than a campanulariid. WoRMS is followed in simply retaining the name C. abyssa for it until its identity can be better established.