Sertularella ellisii (Deshayes and Milne-Edwards, 1836)

Gravili, Cinzia, Vito, Doris De, Camillo, Cristina Gioia Di, Martell, Luis, Piraino, Stefano & Boero, Ferdinando, 2015, The non-Siphonophoran Hydrozoa (Cnidaria) of Salento, Italy with notes on their life-cycles: an illustrated guide, Zootaxa 3908 (1), pp. 1-187 : 131-132

Sertularella ellisii (Deshayes and Milne-Edwards, 1836)

Fig. 93 A, B

See Medel & Vervoort (1998) for a complete synonymy.

Material examined. HCUS-S 100 (Hydrozoa Collection, University of Salento—fauna of the Salento Peninsula).

Description (based on our own observations; Gili 1986; Ramil et al. 1992; Medel & Vervoort 1998):

Hydroid. Hydrorhiza tubular, as ramified stolons; colony erect; hydrocaulus monosiphonic, up to 50 mm high, irregularly branched, divided into thecate internodes by oblique nodes alternatively directed to the left and the right; hydrocladia with the same structure of hydrocauli; hydrothecae tubular, walls symmetrical, basal half swollen distal half narrower, borne laterally to the axis, alternate, one per internode and in the same plane, abcauline wall 1/3 adnate, aperture more or less perpendicular to the hydrothecal length axis, with 3–5 more or less developed intrathecal projections: when 5, 3 are adcaulinar (one medium, in the same axis of the marginal cusp, and 2 laterals) and 2 are abcaulinar (lateral to the cusps). Gonothecae inserted at hydrothecal base, globular, with slightly undulated perisarc over its whole length, gonothecal aperture terminal, on a short neck, surrounded by 3, occasionally 4, small cusps.

Cnidome. Microbasic mastigophores.

Habitat type. Rocky intertidal and on rocky bottoms from the tidal level to 90 m depth ( Broch 1933; García Carrascosa 1981; Boero & Fresi 1986).

Substrate. The preferential substrates are certain species of algae such as Corallina spp., Cystoseira spp., but it also occurs directly on Posidonia , hydroids, rocks, sponges and ascidians.

Seasonality. January–May, August–December (Puce et al. 2009), and November ( Moura 2011) in the western Mediterranean; all year in Salento waters (De Vito 2006; this study).

Reproductive period. January–March (Puce et al. 2009); April ( Picard 1955; Gili 1986); May ( Medel et al. 1991), July–August ( Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa 2002), and November ( Rossi 1961) in several localities of the Mediterranean Sea.

Distribution. Mainly eastern Atlantic, but also records in western Atlantic and Pacific; Mediterranean (Gili 1986; Ramil et al. 1992; Medel & Vervoort 1998; Bouillon et al. 2004; Soto Ãngel & Peña Cantero 2013).

Records in Salento. Common at: Torre dell’Inserraglio, Montagna Spaccata, S.ta Caterina, Porto Badisco, Ponte del Ciolo ( Presicce 1991); Otranto (De Vito 2006; Gravili 2006; Gravili et al. 2008a; Ventura 2011; this study).

Remarks. Sertularella fusiformis Hincks, 1861 and S. lagenoides Stechow, 1919 are conspecific with S. ellisii (Bouillon et al. 2004) .

References. Stechow (1919) as S. fusiformis and S. lagenoides ; Broch (1933), Picard (1950), Rossi (1961, 1971), Chimenz Gusso & Rivosecchi Taramelli (1975), Relini & Romairone (1976), Repetto et al. (1977), Morri (1980b, 1981a), Boero (1981a, b), García Carrascosa (1981), Morri & Martini (1981), Boero & Fresi (1986), Gili (1986), Ramil (1988), Ramil et al. (1992), Medel et al. (1991), Vervoort (1993), Medel & López-González (1996), Medel & Vervoort (1998), Morri & Bianchi (1999), Morri et al. (1999); Piraino et al. (1999) and Faucci & Boero (2000) both as S. gaudichaudi ; Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa (2002), De Vito (2006), Gravili (2006), Gravili et al. (2008a), Morri et al. (2009), Puce et al. (2009), Bianchi et al. (2011), Ventura (2011).

Figures

FIGURE 93. Sertularella ellisii: A, detail of stem and hydrothecae; B, detail of gonotheca (A, B same scale bar) (drawn by C. G. Di Camillo). Scale bar: 1.0 mm.