Cuspidella grandis Hincks, 1868

Calder, Dale R., 2012, On a collection of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Hydroidolina) from the west coast of Sweden, with a checklist of species from the region 3171, Zootaxa 3171 (1), pp. 1-77 : 26-27

Cuspidella grandis Hincks, 1868

Fig. 25

Cuspidella grandis Hincks, 1868: 210 , pl. 40, fig. 4.— Lönnberg, 1898: 53.— Kramp, 1935b: 134.— Jägerskiöld, 1971: 61.

Type locality. British Isles : Connemara ( Ireland), Shetland (Scotland) ( Hincks 1868: 210) .

Museum material. Kosterhavet, 58°53.030’N, 11°05.567’E, 140– 100 m, 10.ix.2010, biological dredge, R / V Nereus , two colony fragments, about 1.5 mm high, on Ascidia mentula , without gonophores, ROMIZ B3921.

Remarks. These specimens correspond with descriptions and illustrations of Cuspidella grandis Hincks, 1868 , originally described from the British Isles. Hincks distinguished the species from C. humilis Hincks, 1866 in its larger size and in the relative slenderness of its hydrothecae in relation to height. Some hydrothecae examined here were even more elongate than those portrayed by Hincks. Taxonomic affinities of this morphotype remain uncertain because medusae assigned to several different genera and families are known to have Cuspidella -like hydroids

FIGURE 26. Filellum serpens : part of stolon with one hydrotheca, ROMIZ B3905. Scale equals 0.5 mm.

(e.g., Brinckmann 1965; Calder 1970; Cornelius 1995a; Bouillon et al. 2006). Medusae raised from a hydroid resembling C. grandis by Rees (1941) were identified by him as Cosmetira pilosella ( Forbes, 1848) , but he was reluctant to formally combine the two ( Cornelius 1995a). Hydroids reared from medusae of Mitrocomella polydiademata ( Romanes, 1876) by Edwards (1973b) likewise resemble C. grandis . Medusae of both C. pilosella and M. polydiademata occur in the Skagerrak and Kattegat ( Cornelius 1995a). Given continuing uncertainty surrounding the identity of hydroids examined here, they are simply assigned to C. grandis .

Hydroids of this morphotype have been reported from a number of locations across southwestern Scandinavia (e.g., Kramp 1935b; Jägerskiöld 1971; Christiansen 1972, as Cosmetira pilosella ).

Reported distribution. West coast of Sweden.—From Säcken area ( Jägerskiöld 1971) to Öresund ( Lönnberg 1898).

Elsewhere.—North Atlantic from northern seas of the Russian Federation to the Bay of Biscay ( Christiansen 1972, as Cosmetira pilosella ) in the east, and from Hudson Bay and Labrador to the Gulf of St. Lawrence ( Fraser 1944) in the west.

Figures

FIGURE 25. Cuspidella grandis: one hydrotheca with renovated margins, ROMIZ B3921. Scale equals 0.5 mm.