Eutima, McCrady, 1859

Calder, Dale R., 2019, On a collection of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the southwest coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 4689 (1), pp. 1-141 : 35

? Eutima sp.

Fig. 8c

Material examined. Sanibel Island, beach at Lighthouse Point, 26°26’57”N, 82°01’06”W, on detached Thalassia at water’s edge, 13 March 2018, 20° C, 33.5‰, one colony, 1 mm high, without gonophores, coll. D. Calder, ROMIZ B4349.

Remarks. The identity of this tiny hydroid is obscure. Gonophores were lacking in the colony observed here. A species closely matching its trophosome in morphology has been identified elsewhere ( Calder 1971; Calder & Hester 1978) as “ Campanopsis ” sp. The generic name Campanopsis , applied by Claus (1881) to a hydroid subjectively linked to the medusa Octorchis gegenbauri Haeckel, 1864 (now Eutima gegenbauri ), is a junior subjective synonym of both Eutima McCrady, 1859 and its junior synonym Octorchis Haeckel, 1864 . The present hydroid, resembling that described by Claus, is provisionally assigned here to the genus Eutima .

Several species of medusae have been assigned to Eutima on the east coast of the United States ( Kramp 1959, 1961), and the hydroid examined here may be the polyp stage of one of them. Eutima mira McCrady, 1859 , originally described from Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, ranges from Massachusetts to Florida. Eutima variabilis McCrady, 1859 , also first described from Charleston, has been reported from North Carolina to Florida. Eutima coerulea (L. Agassiz, 1862) , with a type locality at Key West, is known from the Bahamas and Florida. Eutima cuculata Brooks, 1882 , from Beaufort, North Carolina, is a species inquirenda. Meanwhile, hydroids identified as Campanopsis sp. have been reported in the western North Atlantic from southern Chesapeake Bay ( Calder 1971) and South Carolina ( Calder & Hester 1978). One of the medusa species listed above ( E. mira ) co-occurs with the hydroid Campanopsis sp. (= Eutima sp.) in the Chesapeake estuary ( Calder 1971), but such evidence is insufficient to link the two. The taxonomy of this hydroid thus remains unresolved. The higher classification adopted above for it generally follows that outlined in a previous work (Calder 1990 [1991a]: 5, 6).

The hydroids reported here, from southwest Florida, were found on turtle grass ( Thalassia testudinum ). Specimens believed to be the same species, but reported as Campanopsis sp. by me ( Calder 1971), were found on sponges ( Halichondria bowerbanki ), tubes of a polychaete ( Hydroides hexagona ), and oyster shells ( Crassostrea virginica ) in the southern Chesapeake Bay region, Virginia. In South Carolina, hydroids identified as Campanopsis sp. were reported from sponges ( Calder & Hester 1978).

Reported distribution. Gulf coast of Florida. First record.

Elsewhere in western North Atlantic. USA: Virginia, Gloucester Point ( Calder 1971: 67, as? Campanopsis sp.).— USA: South Carolina, North Edisto River ( Calder & Hester 1978: 91, as Campanopsis sp.).

Figures

FIGURE 8. a, Hebella venusta: hydrotheca, pedicel, and stolon, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B1929. Scale equals 0.1 mm. b, Modeeria rotunda: hydrotheca, pedicel, and stolon, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B4350. Scale equals 0.2 mm. c, Eutima sp.: hydranth and stolon, Sanibel Island, ROMIZ B4349. Scale equals 0.1 mm. d, Genus and species indeterminate: hydrotheca, pedicel, and stolon, Southwest Florida Shelf, ROMIZ B4355. Scale equals 0.1 mm.