Solanderiidae Marshall, 1892

Calder, Dale R., 2010, Some anthoathecate hydroids and limnopolyps (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Hawaiian archipelago 2590, Zootaxa 2590 (1), pp. 1-91 : 58-59

Family Solanderiidae Marshall, 1892

Solanderiidae Marshall, 1892: 8 .

Diagnosis. Capitate hydroids forming large, erect, branched, bushy to fan-shaped to tangled colonies, arising from a flattened mass of hydrorhizal tubes. Hydrocaulus and hydrocladia with a skeletal axis of intertwining and anastomosing chitinous fibres, forming a trabecular network; chitinous hydrophores present or absent; naked coenosarc covering skeleton and filling interstices. Hydranths clavate, arising from superficial coenosarc, bearing an oral whorl of capitate tentacles, additional capitate tentacles scattered over hydranth body; hypostome dome-shaped.

Gonophores fixed sporosacs or eumedusoids, given off from outer layer of coenosarc.

Remarks. The taxonomic history of Solanderiidae Marshall, 1892 has been reviewed by Vervoort (1962) and Bouillon et al. (1992). Colonies are supported by a chitinous skeleton that is ectodermal, as in other hydroids ( Vervoort 1966). Bouillon et al. (1992) included scanning electron micrographs of skeletons of various solanderiid species.

Only one genus, Solanderia Duchassaing & Michelin, 1846 , has been recognized in this family in recent works. Chitina Carter, 1873 , regarded as a doubtful solanderiid genus by Vervoort (1962), was considered valid by Bouillon & Cornelius (1988) but as congeneric with Solanderia by Schuchert (1996, 2009) and Bouillon et al. (2006). Seven species are currently recognized in the family ( Daly et al. 2007; Schuchert 2009), with two of them known from Hawaii.