Grammaria elegans Fraser, 1943a

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 : 41

Grammaria elegans Fraser, 1943a

Grammaria elegans Fraser, 1943a: 79 , pl. 18, fig. 7.

Holotype. MCZ-IZ 9007: U.S. Virgin Islands : off St. Croix, Blake Expedition, 17°37’55”N, 64°54’20”W, 115 fm (210 m), 0 5 January 1878, one colony, 8 cm high, with a detached fragment, in fairly good condition, without gonophores, labelled “ type ”; formalin, about to be transferred to ethanol.

Type locality. U.S. Virgin Islands : off St. Croix, 17°37’55”N, 64°54’20”W, 115 fm (210 m) ( Fraser 1943a).

Current status. Valid.

Remarks. Fraser (1943a) described Grammaria elegans from a hydroid colony in collections at the MCZ, but designated no name-bearing type for it. A single specimen of the species from the type locality (“off Santa Cruz Island”), labelled “ type ”, was located in the MCZ Type Collection (MCZ-IZ 9007). That specimen is the holotype by monotypy. No types were located elsewhere (NMNH, CAS, RBCM, YPM), and it was not mentioned as part of the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM by Arai (1977).

Grammaria elegans is listed as valid in WoRMS. With the exception of one questionable record from slope waters off the Carolinas ( Hilbig 1994, as G. cf. elegans ), the species is known only from the original description. Its gonosome is unknown.