Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900

Calder, Dale R., 2019, On a collection of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the southwest coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 4689 (1), pp. 1-141 : 112-113

Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900

Fig. 24f

Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900: 59 , pl. 2, figs. 4, 5.— Shier 1965: 61, pl. 33.

Plumularia florida .— Wallace 1909: 137 [incorrect subsequent spelling].

Type locality. USA: Florida, “two miles (3.2 km) west of Cape Romano ...” ( Nutting 1900: 59) .

Material examined. Fort Myers Beach, on stranded Idiellana pristis , 01 March 2013, three colonies or colony fragments, up to 1 cm high, without gonophores, coll. D. Calder, ROMIZ B4399.

Remarks. Plumularia floridana Nutting, 1900 was originally described from the vicinity of Cape Romano, on the southwest coast of Florida. It is a relatively well-known species in warm-temperate to tropical waters of the western Atlantic, with an inshore range extending from southern Massachusetts ( Fraser 1944) to Brazil ( Oliveira et al. 2016). It has also been reported in offshore waters along the eastern United States on pelagic Sargassum in the Gulf Stream ( Fraser 1944).

Hydroids of P. floridana seem quite distinctive. Colonies are small (usually <2 cm high), with relatively large, nearly cylindrical hydrothecae that are free from the hydrocladia for 1/3 or more of their length. Even more distinctive is the gonosome, with gonothecae that are small, thin, filmy, and oval to nearly round. These structures collapse once the gonothecal contents are released.

While P. floridana has been found in open ocean environments such as the tops of Challenger and Plantagenet banks off Bermuda ( Calder 2000), it has been reported most often from nearshore environments. In coastal South Carolina colonies are widespread across the state, occurring from euhaline waters (>30‰) to about the 25‰ iso- haline upestuary ( Calder 1976, 1983; Calder & Hester 1978). As for seasonality in the same region, active colonies were found from mid-March through early January, over a temperature range from 10–32° C (Calder 1990). Its reported bathymetric range extends from the surface, on pelagic Sargassum ( Fraser 1944) , to a depth of at least 73 m (Calder 1997).

Plumularia floridana is thought to be circumglobal in warm-temperate and tropical waters ( Ansín Agís et al. 2001; Calder 2013), although confirmation is needed. More information on the species is given in Migotto (1996), Calder (1997), and Ansín Agís et al. (2001).

Reported distribution. Gulf coast of Florida. SW Florida shelf, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Cape Romano ( Nutting 1900: 59).—Dry Tortugas ( Wallace 1909: 137, as Plumularia florida ).—Cape San Blas area ( Shier 1965: 61).

Elsewhere in western North Atlantic. USA: North Carolina, off Bogue Bank, on floating Sargassum ( Fraser 1912b: 381) .— USA: North Carolina, 100 miles (161 km) east of Cape Hatteras, on Sargassum ( Fraser 1943: 96) .— USA: New Jersey, continental slope east of the Jersey shore, 39°05’30”N, 70°44’30”W, 1525 ftm (2789 m) + 38°59’N, 70°07’W, 1522 ftm (2783 m); both almost certainly on sunken Sargassum ( Fraser 1944: 345) .— USA: Maryland, Gulf Stream off the Delmarva Peninsula, 38°25’N, 72°40’W, on pelagic Sargassum ( Fraser 1944: 346) .— USA: Massachusetts, off Nobska Light, 12.5 ftm (23 m) ( Fraser 1944: 346).— USA: Louisiana, Grand Isle, on Sargassum ( Fraser 1944: 346; Behre 1950: 7).— USA: Texas, Galveston, on Sargassum ( Defenbaugh & Hopkins 1973: 112) .— USA: South Carolina, estuaries, widespread, 2–20 m ( Calder & Hester 1978: 91; Calder 1983: 20).— Belize: Carrie Bow Cay ( Spracklin 1982: 246, as Plumularia sp.).— Colombia: Cartagena, Punta Gigante & Playa Blanca ( Flórez González 1983: 121, as Plumularia sp.).— USA: South Carolina, North Inlet area, Town Creek and tributaries + Folly River area, Oak Island, oyster reef + Beaufort River, oyster reefs ( Fox & Ruppert 1985: 61, 152, 211).— USA: South Carolina and Georgia, inner continental shelf, on artificial reefs ( Wendt et al. 1989: 1119).— Bermuda: Hungry Bay, 1 m + Whalebone Bay, on Thalassia , 1 m + 2 km SE of Castle Roads, 73 m + 2 km off Natural Arches Beach, 70 m (Calder 1997: 15).— Bermuda: Challenger Bank + Argus (=Plantagenet) Bank ( Calder 2000: 1133).— Panama: Bocas del Toro area, Hospital Point, 09°20’01.9”N, 82°13’07.7”W, 2–13 m + Boca del Drago, 09°25’36.3”N, 82°19’30.1”W, 1–3 m + Crawl Cay, 09°15.261’N, 82°07.787’W, 2–4 m ( Calder & Kirkendale 2005: 482).—French Lesser Antilles: Les Saintes, 15°52’25”N, 61°34’15”W, on Thalassia ( Galea 2008: 46) .—French Lesser Antilles: Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, 16°21.269’N, 61°34.193’W, 10–15 m ( Galea 2010: 4).— Cuba: Golfo de Batabanó, Punta Francés, Boya El Límite ( Castellanos-Iglesias et al. 2011: 24).— USA: Florida, off Vero Beach, 27°41.2’N, 80°14.5’W, 17 m ( Calder 2013: 37).—French Lesser Antilles: Martinique ( Galea 2013: 50).—Caribbean Sea ( Wedler 2017b: 160, figs. 199A–C, 200).— Mexico: Alacranes Reef, on algae, sponges, seagrass, soft corals ( Mendoza-Becerril et al. 2018b: 131).— Cuba: Havana, coral reef system west of the city (Castellanos et al. 2018: Supplementary Table S2).— Panama: Bocas del Toro area, vicinity of Manuguar Cay ( Miglietta et al. 2018b: 108).

Figures

FIGURE 24. a, Monotheca margaretta: part of a hydrocaulus with a hydrocladium and hydrotheca, Florida Keys, Bahia Honda Channel, ROMIZ B4397. Scale equals 0.05 mm. b, Nemertesia nigra: part of hydrocaulus and proximal ends of hydrocladia, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B2138. Scale equals 0.1 mm. c, Nemertesia nigra: part of a hydrocladium with a hydrotheca and nematothecae, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B2138. Scale equals 0.05 mm. d, Nemertesia simplex: apophysis of hydrocaulus and proximal end of a hydrocladium, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B2113. Scale equals 0.1 mm. e, Nemertesia simplex: part of a hydrocladium with a hydrotheca and nematothecae, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B2113. Scale equals 0.1 mm. f, Plumularia floridana: part of a hydrocaulus with proximal end of a hydrocladium and two hydrothecae, Fort Myers Beach, ROMIZ B4399. Scale equals 0.1 mm.