Eudendrium

Galea, Horia R. & Schories, Dirk, 2012, Some hydrozoans (Cnidaria) from Central Chile and the Strait of Magellan, Zootaxa 3296, pp. 19-67 : 28

Eudendrium sp. 3

(pl. 1G)

Material examined. Stn. YBU — 26.iv.2011, S08 (20 m): a colony on worm tube, composed of a few stems up to 2 cm high, bearing female gonophores (MHNG-INVE-79605).

Description. Stems erect, monosiphonic, arising from creeping hydrorhiza. Branching very spare, irregular, in all directions. Stems and branches rather straight; perisarc annulated basally, elsewhere smooth. Side branches with 1–3 pedicels given off at irregular intervals, each supporting a hydranth, as well as a terminal polyp at tip of brach. Hydranths with 20–22 filiform tentacles. Gonophores, female in available material, developing on normal hydranths, 4–6 around polyp body, spadix simple; more advanced stages with embryos borne in perisarc-covered capsules arranged irregularly along pedicel, terminal hydranth eventually lost. Nematocysts: microbasic euryteles in two size classes:

- small [(7.1–7.7)×(3.3–3.4) µm], pyriform capsules, abundant in tentacles, hydranth body and coenosarc of stem and branches;

- large [(20.7–22.1)×(8.4–9.1) µm], elongate-ovoid capsules, in the hypostome, the lower third of hydranth body, also occurring in the coenosarc of stem and branches, and the upper surface of the spadix.

Distribution in Chile. The present material originates from the Reloncaví Sound.