Staurotheca polarsterni Peña Cantero, Svoboda and Vervoort, 1997

Cantero, A. L. Peña & Vervoort, W., 2003, Species of Staurotheca Allman, 1888 (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Sertulariidae) from US Antarctic expeditions, with the description of three new species, Journal of Natural History 37 (22), pp. 2653-2722 : 2702-2703

Staurotheca polarsterni Peña Cantero, Svoboda and Vervoort, 1997

Staurotheca polarsterni Peña Cantero et al., 1997: 365–368 , figures 9, 13D; 1999: 160; Peña Cantero and García Carrascosa, 1999: 215.

Thuiaria sp. 1 p.p. Naumov and Stepan’yants, 1962: 92–93.

Thuiaria undosiparietina p.p. Stepan’yants, 1979: 94, pl. 18 figure 3, pl. 24.

Remarks. Staurotheca polarsterni is a well-characterized species, mainly distinguished by the erect and polysiphonic stems, densely branched in one plane, by the absence of both anastomoses and mushroom-shaped diaphragm, by the shape of the hydrotheca, almost completely immersed into the branches, and by the number of hydrothecae per verticil (cf. table 6).

Ecology and distribution. Staurotheca polarsterni had been found at depths from 181 to 1030 m on stony and rocky bottoms (Peña Cantero et al., 1997). Colonies with gonothecae were reported in October, December and February (Peña Cantero et al., 1997).

Staurotheca polarsterni appears to have a circum-Antarctic distribution (Peña Cantero et al., 1997). It is known from the Davis Sea (Stepan’yants, 1979 as S. undosiparietina ) and from the east coast of the Weddell Sea (Peña Cantero et al., 1997).