Sphaeronectes fragilis Carré, 1968

P. R. Pugh, 2009, A review of the family Sphaeronectidae (Class Hydrozoa, Order Siphonophora), with the description of three new species, Zootaxa 2147, pp. 1-48 : 48

Sphaeronectes fragilis Carré, 1968 (See Figure 16)

Sphaeronectes fragilis Carré, 1968b, p. 1 , Pl. 1–2; 1968c, p. 84, Pl. 1, fig. 4; Bouillon et al. 2004, p. 230, fig. 141F,G; Gamulin & Kršinić, 2000, p. 137, fig. 87.

Distribution: Sphaeronectes fragilis was described by C. Carré (1968b) from a score of specimens collected in a nonclosing net fished at 10 m depth in the entrance to the Rade de Villefranche-sur-Mer. Dallot et al. (1988) also found specimens at two stations in the western Mediterranean (Alborán Sea) and, apparently, on the Atlantic side of the Straits of Gibraltar, in vertical nets hauled from a maximum of 200 m. Ianora & Scotto di Carlo (1981) also found 12 specimens in the Bay of Naples between 50 and 300 m. In the eastern Mediterranean the species has been found in the Adriatic by Rottini (1966a,b), Gamulin (1977, 1982), Gamulin & Kršinić (1993a,b, 2000), and Lučić et al. (2005); the last authors finding it mainly concentrated at a depth of c. 100 m.

Apart from record from Dallot et al. (1988), for just west of the Straits of Gibraltar, there appear to be no other Atlantic Ocean records for this species. However, it has been found on a number of occasions at various locations off the coast of Chile by Sergio Palma and his co-workers, e.g. Palma (2006), Palma & Rosales (1995, 1997), Apablaza & Palma (2006), and by Pagès & Orejas (1999). Sergio Palma (personal communication) informs me that he has been able to identify the eudoxid stage of this species.