Ventromma halecioides ( Alder, 1859 )

Calder, Dale R., 2013, Some shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the central east coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 3648 (1), pp. 1-72 : 45

Ventromma halecioides ( Alder, 1859)

Fig. 13f

Plumularia halecioides Alder, 1859: 353 , pl. 12, figs. 1–5.

Ventromma halecioides . — Jones, 2002: 218.

Type locality. UK: England, Cullercoats and Roker ( Alder 1859) .

Voucher material. Fort Pierce , ship canal at Link Port, 27°32’05”N, 80°20’50”W, 0.1 m, 17.ii.1991, on prop roots of Rhizophora mangle , 15° C, 22‰, collected by snorkeling, 10 cormoids, up to 1.3 cm high, without gonophores, coll. D.R. Calder, ROMIZ B1108 .

Remarks. Differences between the genera Kirchenpaueria Jickeli, 1883 and Ventromma Stechow, 1923 appear slight morphologically, and the two are frequently regarded as congeneric. The trophosome of Ventromma is distinguished by having nematophores with nematothecae, lacking in Kirchenpaueria . Ventromma is retained in this work based largely on evidence from molecular work ( Leclère et al. 2007; Moura et al. 2008; Peña Cantero et al. 2010), showing that V. halecioides ( Alder, 1859) , its type species, is genetically distant from Kirchenpaueria pinnata ( Linnaeus, 1758) , type species of Kirchenpaueria .

A species often found inshore in quiet-water areas, Ventromma halecioides ( Alder 1859) was found here on red mangroves bordering the canal leading into the harbor at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Fort Pierce.

Reported distribution. Atlantic coast of Florida. Biscayne Bay ( Jones 2002).

Western Atlantic. North Carolina ( Fraser 1912b, as Plumularia inermis Nutting, 1900 ) to Brazil (Oliveira et al. submitted), including Bermuda ( Calder 1997), the Gulf of Mexico ( Calder & Cairns 2009), and the Caribbean Sea ( Galea 2008, as Kirchenpaueria halecioides ).

Elsewhere. Believed to be circumglobal in shallow tropical and warm-temperate waters ( Calder 1997).

Figures

FIGURE 13. a, Halopteris clarkei: part of hydrocaulus with two hydrocladia and three hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1096, scale equals 0.25 mm. b, Halopteris diaphana: part of hydrocaulus with a hydrocladium and a hydrotheca, ROMIZ B3975, scale equals 0.20 mm. c, Halopteris diaphana: part of a hydrocladium with a hydrotheca and nematothecae, ROMIZ B3975, scale equals 0.10 mm. d, Halopteris diaphana: part of hydrocaulus with a hydrotheca and female gonotheca, ROMIZ B3975, scale equals 0.10 mm. e, Monostaechas quadridens: part of a hydrocladium with two hydrothecae and a female gonotheca, ROMIZ B1102, scale equals 0.25 mm. f, Ventromma halecioides: part of hydrocaulus with a hydrocladium and two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1108, scale equals 0.20 mm.