Sertularella conica Allman, 1877

Calder, Dale R., 2013, Some shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the central east coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 3648 (1), pp. 1-72 : 29

Sertularella conica Allman, 1877

Fig. 8i

Sertularella conica Allman, 1877: 21 , pl. 15, figs. 6, 7.

Type locality. USA: Florida, southwest of Tortugas, 60 fathoms (110 m) ( Allman 1877) .

Voucher material. Off Fort Pierce , 27°10.8’N, 80°02.5’W, 22 m, 24.vii.1975, R/V Johnson and Johnson-Sea- Link, JSL 273, several fragments of one colony, up to 8 mm high, without gonophores, coll. T. Askew, ROMIZ B1087 .

Remarks. Valid questions about the identity of Allman’s (1877) original material of Sertularella conica have been raised by Galea (2008), who suggested that it appeared more like S. unituba Calder, 1991a than the S. conica of Calder (1991a) and Migotto (1996). Uncertainty exists because Allman’s account of the species was brief and his illustration somewhat generalized. An earlier attempt ( Calder 1991a) to examine and better characterize the type of S. conica was unsuccessful because the specimen could not be found at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. For now, the concept of S. conica adopted in earlier papers ( Calder 1983, 1991a) is maintained in this work. In my opinion, hydrothecae of S. conica as briefly described and illustrated by Allman more closely resemble those in specimens attributed to that species in my earlier works ( Calder 1983, 1991a) than to S. unituba , but discovery and redescription of type material would help resolve the issue.

Specimens assigned here to Sertularella conica somewhat resemble Sertularella peculiaris Leloup, 1935 from the Caribbean, but are fundamentally different from that species in having colonies that are erect instead of stolonal or mostly stolonal. Erect colonies of S. peculiaris essentially comprise a series of pedicellate hydrothecae (e.g., Leloup 1935, fig. 26, as S. tenella forme peculiaris ; Galea 2008, Fig. 6B ) rather than having a typical leptothecate hydrocaulus made up of regular internodes each bearing a disto-lateral hydrotheca, as in S. conica . I therefore disagree with the opinion of Galea (2008) that material identified as S. conica by me ( Calder 1991a) is referable to S. peculiaris . A record of S. conica from Brazil by Migotto (1996), based on a very small colony (2.7 mm high), needs reassessment.

Reports of this tropical-subtropical species from cold waters of Nova Scotia in the boreal western North Atlantic (e.g., Fraser 1944), from the west coast of North America (e.g., Fraser 1937a), and from the Southern Ocean (e.g., Vervoort 1972; Stepanjants 1979) are considered misidentifications ( Calder 1991a). So too are records by Fraser (1938a, b, 1948) from the tropical eastern Pacific ( Calder et al. 2003: 1212) and by Van Gemerden- Hoogeveen (1965) from the Dry Tortugas. Specimens from the latter location more closely resemble Sertularella unituba .

Reported distribution. Atlantic coast of Florida. First record.

Elsewhere. North Carolina ( Fraser 1912b) to Argentina (Oliveira et al. submitted), including Bermuda ( Calder 1991a), the Gulf of Mexico ( Calder & Cairns 2009), and the Caribbean Sea ( Fraser 1947).

Elsewhere. Questionably reported from the eastern Atlantic ( Stechow 1920) and the Indian Ocean ( Jarvis 1922).

Figures

FIGURE 6. a, Halecium calderi: part of hydrocaulus with hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1094, scale equals 0.25 mm. b, Halecium calderi: female gonotheca, ROMIZ B1094, scale equals 0.25 mm. c, Halecium calderi: male gonotheca, ROMIZ B1124, scale equals 0.20 mm. d, Halecium tenellum: a, part of hydrocaulus with hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1105, scale equals 0.25 mm.

FIGURE 8. a, Diphasia digitalis: part of a hydrocladium with hydrothecal pairs, ROMIZ B3964, scale equals 0.25 mm. b, Dynamena crisioides: part of hydrocaulus with basal part of a hydrocladium and hydrothecae, ROMIZ B3965, scale equals 0.25 mm. c, Dynamena dalmasi: part of hydrocaulus with two hydrothecal pairs, ROMIZ B1081, scale equals 0.25 mm. d, Dynamena disticha: part of hydrocaulus with two hydrothecal pairs, ROMIZ B3966, scale equals 0.20 mm. e, Pasya quadridentata: part of hydrocaulus with three hydrothecal pairs, ROMIZ B1085, scale equals 0.25 mm. f, Pasya quadridentata: gonotheca, ROMIZ B1085, scale equals 0.25 mm. g, Salacia desmoides: part of hydrocaulus with two hydrothecal pairs, ROMIZ B3967, scale equals 0.25 mm. h, Sertularella areyi: part of hydrocaulus with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1135, scale equals 0.5 mm. i, Sertularella conica: part of hydrocaulus with three hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1087, scale equals 0.25 mm.