Anthoathecata Cornelius, 1992

Calder, Dale R., 2010, Some anthoathecate hydroids and limnopolyps (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Hawaiian archipelago 2590, Zootaxa 2590 (1), pp. 1-91 : 8

Order Anthoathecata Cornelius, 1992

Anthoathecata Cornelius, 1992: 246 .

Diagnosis. Hydrozoa with colonial or solitary hydroids having hydranths lacking hydrothecae, gonophores lacking gonothecae, and nematophores, if present, lacking nematothecae.

Gonophores fixed sporosacs, eumedusoids, or medusae. Medusae, when present, usually with bell-shaped umbrella; marginal sense organs, when present, comprising ocelli, statocysts and cordyli absent; gonads on manubrium, infrequently extending onto bases of radial canals.

Remarks. Cornelius (1992) proposed Anthoathecata (later spelled Anthoathecatae by Cornelius 1995: 74) as a single replacement name for Athecata Hincks, 1868 , established in a monograph on hydroids, and its junior synonym Anthomedusae Haeckel, 1879, used in a systematic account on medusae. The name eliminates vestiges of a much-maligned dual nomenclature for the taxon, including awkward compound names such as “Athecatae/Anthomedusae.” As a term readily applicable to both major stages in the life cycle, it is more inclusive than either of the older names associated primarily or exclusively with either hydroids or medusae. In being applied to a taxon above the rank of family-group, no rules of zoological nomenclature are violated in adopting this recently established name. Anthoathecata , now in widepread use, has been adopted in the World Hydrozoa Database ( Schuchert 2009). However, there is evidence from molecular work that Anthoathecata and its suborders Filifera Kühn, 1913 and Capitata Kühn, 1913 are not monophyletic ( Cartwright et al. 2008), and classification of the entire assemblage must eventually change.

Recognized as an order here, Anthoathecata is essentially equivalent in scope to Gymnoblastea Allman, 1871 as used and defined in older works on hydroids.