Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900

Calder, Dale R. & Faucci, Anuschka, 2021, Shallow water hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the 2002 NOWRAMP cruise to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Zootaxa 5085 (1), pp. 1-73 : 40-41

Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900

Fig. 11d

Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900: 59 , pl. 2 figs 4, 5.— Coles et al., 2002a: 318; 2004: 73; 2006: 492.— Carlton & Eldredge, 2009: 36.— Calder, 2020: 226, fig. 7g.

Plumularian hydroid.— Edmondson, 1946: 26, fig. 13d.

Type locality. USA: Florida, 3.2 km west of Cape Romano ( Nutting 1900) .

Voucher material. Gardner Pinnacles, on rubble, 14.ix.2002, one colony, 4.5 mm high, without gonothecae, coll. A. Faucci, ROMIZ B5449.

Remarks. Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900 was originally described from the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Florida ( Nutting 1900). From identifications based on morphology, the species has subsequently been reported worldwide in shallow tropical to temperate waters, including Hawaii ( Calder 2020). Cryptic diversity likely exists in hydroids assigned that binomen. With molecular work needed to sort out the taxonomy of this morphotype, current usage of the name P. floridana has been maintained for the colony from Gardner Pinnacles examined here.

Information on hydroids identified as P. floridana are provided in works such as those by Calder (1997, 2019, 2020), Ansín Agís et al. (2001), and Calder et al. (2021).

Reported Distribution. Hawaiian archipelago. Oahu: Waikiki Reef, underside of stones ( Edmondson 1946, as “plumularian hydroid”); Kaneohe Bay, Hakipuu Reef Flat ( Coles et al. 2002a); Kaneohe Bay, Waiahole Reef ( Calder 2020).—Island of Hawaii, Kawaihae Reef, just seaward of Kawaihae Harbor ( Coles et al. 2004, 2006); Red Hill ( Coles et al. 2006).

Elsewhere. Circumglobal in the neritic zone of tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters ( Ansín Agís et al.

2001; Calder 2020).

Figures

FIGURE 11. Plumulariidae. a, Monotheca flexuosa (Bale, 1894), part of hydrocaulus with two hydrocladia, each with a hydrotheca, Kure Atoll, ROMIZ B5447. Scale equals 0.1 mm. b, Monotheca gibbosa, sp. nov., holotype, part of hydrocaulus with hydrocladia and three hydrothecae, Laysan Island, ROMIZ B5448. Scale equals 0.1 mm. c, Monotheca gibbosa, sp. nov., holotype, part of hydrocaulus, and a hydrocladium with one hydrotheca, Laysan Island, ROMIZ B5448. Scale equals 0.05 mm. d, Plumularia floridana (Nutting 1900), part of hydrocaulus with bases of two hydrocladia, one with two hydrothecae, Gardner Pinnacles, ROMIZ B5449. Scale equals 0.1 mm. e, Plumularia strictocarpa Pictet, 1893, part of hydrocaulus with bases of two hydrocladia, one with two hydrothecae, Kure Atoll, ROMIZ B5453. Scale equals 0.1 mm. f, Plumularia strictocarpa Pictet, 1893, part of hydrorhiza, and proximal end of hydrocaulus with a gonotheca, Kure Atoll, ROMIZ B5453. Scale equals 0.2 mm.