Campanularia fasciculata Fraser, 1941b

Calder, Dale R. & Choong, Henry H. C., 2018, Names of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) established by Charles McLean Fraser (1872 - 1946), excluding those from Allan Hancock Expeditions, Zootaxa 4487 (1), pp. 1-83 : 66

? Campanularia fasciculata Fraser, 1941b

? Campanularia fasciculata Fraser, 1941b: 81 , pl. 15, figs. 6a, b.

Holotype. USNM 43454 : USA, Massachusetts, off Chatham, Crab Ledge, R / V Fish Hawk Sta. 984, 41°31’N, 69°28’W, 60 m, 30 August 1881, trawl, one colony with some parts on and others detached from a barnacle, largest fragment 2 cm high, in fairly good condition, without gonophores, labelled “ type ”; ethanol.

Paratypes. BCPM 976-00346-001: USA, Massachusetts, Cape Cod, off Chatham, several colony fragments, up to 2 cm high, in poor condition, without gonothecae, labelled “cotype”; dry sometime in the past, 60% IPA.

Type locality. USA, Massachusetts: off Chatham , 41°31’N, 69°28’W, 33 fm (60 m) ( Fraser 1941b).

Current status. Species inquirenda.

Remarks. Fraser (1941b) designated material at the NMNH (USNM 43454) as the “ type ” of Campanularia fasciculata . Although the specimen count of the species in the NMNH online database is listed as “1”, the collection is currently listed as syntype material. We believe the type represents several pieces of a single colony, growing on a barnacle, and therefore constitutes a holotype. Colony fragments in the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00346-001), labelled “cotype”, are paratypes. Other material assigned to the species in collections at the NMNH (USNM 86217, USNM 86218) were collected during the 1980s and are not types.

This species was assigned by Fraser (1941b), with question, to Campanularia Lamarck, 1816 . It is unlikely referable to that genus in having hydrothecae with a true diaphragm rather than a basal annular thickening of perisarc, in lacking a characteristic subhydrothecal spherule, and in having an erect rather than a typically stolonal colony form. In such characters, the hydroid conforms with species of Obeliidae Haeckel, 1879 rather than Campanulariidae Johnston, 1837 . Cairns et al. (2002: 58) included C. fasciculata as a possible synonym of Obelia longissima ( Pallas, 1766) . That now seems unlikely based on its colony form. While the hydroid somewhat resembles O. longissima , it differs in the mode of branching and in having a peculiar polysiphonic hydrocaulus. The species is currently regarded as a taxon inquirenda in WoRMS, a view adopted here. Gonophores were not observed in the type material, adding to uncertainties about classification of the species. The binomen Campanularia fasciculata is provisionally retained for it here given its doubtful affinities.