Campanulina cliftonia, Watson, Jeanette E., 2011

Watson, Jeanette E., 2011, New species, new records and redescriptions of Thecate hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Leptothecata) from Southern Australia, Zootaxa 3122, pp. 1-36 : 2-3

Campanulina cliftonia sp. nov.

Fig. 1 A–E

Material examined. Holotype, NMV F171352, infertile colony on dead bryozoan on floating pontoon, Clifton Springs boat harbour, Port Phillip, depth 0.3 m, coll: J. Watson, 7/04/2009. Paratype, NMV F171353, infertile colony on serpulid tube, on floating pontoon, Clifton Springs boat harbour, Port Phillip, depth 0.2 m, coll: J. Watson 22/02/2010. Paratype, NMV F171354, infertile colony on mussel shell, St Leonards pier, Port Phillip, depth 3 m, coll: J. Watson, 20/01/2010. All material ethanol preserved.

Description from holotype and paratype (live material). Colony minute, stolonal, hydrorhiza loosely attached to substrate, stolons tubular. Hydrothecal pedicels arising irregularly from stolon, diameter about same as stolon; pedicels variable in length, weakly corrugated to almost smooth, cylindrical or expanding slightly to base of hydrotheca, perisarc thin. Hydrotheca slender bud-shaped to almost tubular, variable in length, operculum comprising up to 20 thin segments arising in distal half to quarter of hydrotheca and converging in a tuft; no demarcation with body of hydrotheca; perisarc of hydrotheca and opercular segments thin; hydrothecal diaphragm usually indistinct but concave in paratype; no nematophores.

Hydranth very extensile with a whorl of 16–20 long moniliform tentacles with rings of nematocysts; tentacles extended in an amphicoronate pattern, base of tentacles connected by a conspicuous web with groups of large nematocysts; hypostome small, conical. Column of extended hydranth 0.5–1.0 mm long, tentacles to 0.7 mm long.

Cnidome comprising:

i) anisorhizas, capsule bean-shaped, 17–19 x 6 µm, shaft ~20 µm long, finely spinous, thread very long, probably in intertentacular web.

ii) anisorhizas, narrow canoe-shaped, 8–11 x 2.5–3 µm, shaft ~15 µm long, in tentacles.

Colony transparent white, hypostome white.

Hydrorhiza, width 52–60

Pedicel

length 104–180 Diameter 48–56

Hydrotheca

length, diaphragm to apex 300–360 maximum diameter 144–160 diameter at diaphragm 52–60

Remarks. Campanulina is a poorly known genus with few described species, some of which have been assigned to the genus merely as a convenient repository for difficult material. Authors’ opinions differ widely about the validity of the genus: Cornelius (1995a) included it in the family Campanulinidae Hincks, 1868 whereas Calder (2003) referred it to the Phialelliidae Russell, 1953. Campanulina tenuis Van Beneden, 1847 (see Rees 1939) lacked an operculum but possessed an intertentacular web. Later concepts included species with an operculum and webbed tentacles. Until the ramifications of the genus are unravelled I follow Bouillon et al. (2006), who describe Campanulina as uniting ‘campanulinid type’ hydroids with unknown or incompletely known life cycles.

Species of Campanulinia listed by Bouillon et al. (2006) are: Campanulina panicula G.O. Sars, 1874 , C. pumila ( Clarke, 1875) , C. rugosa Nutting 1901 , C. humilis Bale, 1924 , C. ramosa Fraser 1938 , C. maduraensis Billard 1940 , and C. paucilaminosa Billard, 1940 . Campanulina maduraensis , C. rugosa , C. panicula and C. paucilaminosa form relatively tall branched colonies, some species are fascicled and most have fewer opercular segments than Campanulina cliftonia .

Campanulina humilis Bale, 1924 was described from Professor Chilton’s collection in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch of material from the hull of the Terra Nova when in Lyttleton Harbour, New Zealand. Ralph (1957) examined the type microslide and provided a detailed supplementary description of the species as Opercularella humilis . Unfortunately this slide of C. humilis was destroyed in a mail robbery in New Zealand when being returned to the Canterbury Museum (P.M. Ralph, pers. com., 1960). There is no more known material of the type.

Trebilcock (1928) described and figured stolonal and branched specimens he identified as Campanulina humilis from Dunedin, New Zealand, speculating that the branching habit and closely annulated pedicels bring it close to Campanulina turrita Hincks, 1868 (now included in Phialella ). I have examined Trebilcock’s microslide in the collection of Museum Victoria and find it identical with Phialella quadrata ( Forbes, 1848) . Pennycuik (1959) recorded fertile colonies of? Opercularella humilis from rock pools in southern Queensland, her figures of the gonothecae, each containing a developing medusa, brought O. humilis close to Phialella quadrata . However, neither she, nor Vervoort & Watson (2003) took the final step of synonymising Campanulina (Opercularella) humilis with Phialella quadrata .

Infertile pedicellate colonies of Campanulina cliftonia slightly resemble Phialella quadrata but that species has more deeply corrugated, strictly cylindrical pedicels and smaller hydrothecae with fewer opercular flaps that do not meet in an apical tuft (see Watson 1994b). Ralph (1957) examined a specimen of the medusa Eucope annulata von Lendenfeld, 1885 held in the Australian Museum. She found Lendenfeld’s description misleading and identified the medusa as that of P. quadrata .

Although infertile, the new species is referred for the present to Campanulina . Reconsideration of its taxonomic position must await the finding of fertile material.

Etymology. The species is named for the type locality of Clifton Springs in Port Phillip, Victoria.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Campanulina cliftonia sp. nov. A, hydrotheca with extended hydranth, drawn from live material. B, hydrothecae showing tufted operculum. C, intertentacular web of hydranth. D, large anisorhiza. E, small anisorhiza. Scale bar: A, 1 mm, B, 0.3 mm, C, 0.1 mm, D, E, 10 µm.