Kirchenpaueria magellanica ( Hartlaub, 1905 )

Galea, Horia R., 2007, Hydroids and hydromedusae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the fjords region of southern Chile, Zootaxa 1597 (1), pp. 1-116 : 79-80

Kirchenpaueria magellanica ( Hartlaub, 1905)

(fig. 19A–C, table 32)

Plumularia magellanica Hartlaub, 1905: 684 , figs N 5 –O 5.

? Plumularia sp. Hartlaub, 1905: 682 , fig. L 5.

Material examined. Stn. CCA — 12.iii. 2006, 28 m, S87c: several small, infertile colonies and fragments, epizoic on Halopteris schucherti ( MHNG INVE 53309 ) .

Type locality. Ushuaia and Picton Island , Tierra del Fuego .

Description. Small (up to 4.8 mm high) colonies arising from a reptant stolon. Colonies variable in shape, from single cladia arising directly from stolon to pinnate forms. Single cladia composed of alternating hydrothecate and ahydrothecate segments. Hydrothecate segments with one hydrotheca placed in middle of segment and two nematothecae: one situated far below hydrotheca, the other above axil formed by adcauline wall and abaxial side of segment. Hydrothecate segments characteristically forming an obtuse angle at site opposite to insertion of hydrotheca. Ahydrothecate segments, long, tubular, devoid of nematothecae. Pinnate colonies with stems divided into internodes by means of transverse nodes; internodes with one distal apophysis and one axillar nematotheca. Cladia alternating left and right, short, composed in all specimens examined of one hydrothecate segment attached to apophysis by means of short, rectangular segment. Hydrothecate segment with one distal hydrotheca and one median nematotheca situated far below hydrothecal base. Hydranths with ca 16–18 filiform tentacles. Gonothecae absent.

Remarks. The present material is quite scarce and consists of minute colonies, although Hartlaub (1905) described plumes of up to 2 cm high, with cladia bearing up to four hydrothecae. Hartlaub’s (1905) Plumularia sp. (p. 682, fig. L 5) may belong to K. magellanica , although the author thought it was probably a younger form of a known plumulariid. His central figure, showing two cladia arising below a stem hydrotheca, is similar to our specimen shown in figure 19B.

Gonothecae were not observed by Hartlaub (1905). The present material is also sterile and therefore the gonothecae of this species still remain to be discovered.

World distribution. Known only from Chile ( Hartlaub, 1905).

Records from Chile. This species has been previously reported from Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia ( Hartlaub 1905). If Hartlaub’s Plumularia sp. proves to be conspecific with K. magellanica , an additional record is therefore from Calbuco. The present material was collected from Canal Castillo.