Hebella venusta ( Allman, 1877 )

Calder, Dale R., 2013, Some shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the central east coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 3648 (1), pp. 1-72 : 17

Hebella venusta ( Allman, 1877)

Fig. 5a

Lafoea venusta Allman, 1877: 11 , pl. 6, figs. 2, 3.

Type locality. USA: Florida, Loggerhead Key ( Allman 1877) .

Voucher material. Bethel Shoal off Vero Beach, 27°42.6’N, 80°06.8’W, 24 m, on Thyroscyphus marginatus , 18.ii.1976, Johnson-Sea-Link, JSL 328, diver lockout, one colony, without gonothecae, coll. S. Nelson, ROMIZ B1097 .

Remarks. Hebella venusta ( Allman, 1877) appears to be common in the Caribbean region ( Fraser 1944, as Lafoea venusta ; Vervoort 1968; Galea 2010; Castellanos Iglesias 2011). The species was collected on Challenger Bank near Bermuda in 1873 during the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger ( Ritchie 1909, as Lafoea venusta ; Calder 1991a), but it has not been seen in that region since then and appears to have become locally extinct ( Sterrer 1998; Calder 2000). Records from the Indian Ocean ( Ritchie 1910, as Lafoea venusta ; Mergner & Wedler 1977) need to be verified.

Gonothecae of H. venusta were first described by Galea (2010), but the character of the gonophores is still unknown.

Reported distribution. Atlantic coast of Florida. First record.

Western Atlantic. North Carolina ( Cain 1972) to Brazil (Oliveira et al. submitted), including Bermuda ( Calder 1991a), the Gulf of Mexico ( Calder & Cairns 2009), and the Caribbean Sea ( Galea 2010).

Figures

FIGURE 5. a, Hebella venusta: pedicel and hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1097, scale equals 0.20 mm. b, Hebella sp.: pedicel and hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1132, scale equals 0.25 mm. c, Hebellopsis communis: pedicel and hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1100, scale equals 0.10 mm. d, Hebellopsis gigas: pedicel and hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1082, scale equals 0.25 mm. e, Hebellopsis scandens: pedicel and hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1091, scale equals 0.10 mm. f, Cryptolaria pectinata: distal part of a hydrocladium, ROMIZ B1120, scale equals 0.25 mm.