Antennella paucinoda Fraser, 1935b

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 : 54-55

Antennella paucinoda Fraser, 1935b

Antennella paucinoda Fraser, 1935b: 110 , pl. 2, figs. 10a, b.

Syntypes. BCPM 976-00818-001: Japan, Sagami Bay, Arasaki, 70-80 m, 0 4 August 1931, one or more colonies, up to 3.5 cm high, in good condition, labelled " type "; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00818-002 : Japan, Sagami Bay , Arasaki, 70-80 m, 0 4 August 1931, one part of a colony, 1.7 cm high, in excellent condition, with gonothecae; slide.

Lectotype, by present designation. BCPM 976-00818-002 : Japan, Sagami Bay , Arasaki, 70-80 m, 0 4 August 1931, one part of a colony, 1.7 cm high, in excellent condition, with gonothecae; slide.

Paralectotypes. BCPM 976-00818-001: Japan, Sagami Bay, Arasaki, 70-80 m, 0 4 August 1931, one or more colonies, up to 3.5 cm high, in good condition, labelled " type "; 60% IPA.

Type locality. Japan: Sagami Bay , near Hayama, 70-80 m ( Fraser 1935b).

Current status. Valid, but see Remarks below.

Remarks. These hydroids, sent to Fraser (1935b) for identification from the collection of Emperor Hirohito, are from Sagami Bay, Japan. Although only one of the samples listed above at the RBCM is marked “ type ” (BCPM 976-00818-001), both are taken here to represent syntype material (see ICZN Art. 72.4.7) and are likely from the same collection. No name-bearing type was designated by Fraser in the original account of the species, and none has subsequently been made to our knowledge. While Fraser labelled a fluid specimen (BCPM 976-00818-001) as the “ type ”, it comprises fragments of one or more colonies, and is included here as a paralectotype. A single colony fragment apparently from the same sample on a microscope slide (BCPM 976-00818-002), in excellent condition and with gonothecae, is designated here as the lectotype.

Several dozen records of Antennella paucinoda , from Sagami Bay, Japan, also exist in the Emperor Shōwa Hydroid Collection at the NMNS . Three of them are from the same locality as those at the RBCM (NSMT-HyR 147, NSMT-HyR 148, NSMT-HyR 149).

Hirohito (1995) noted the resemblance of A. paucinoda to several other species of Antennella Allman, 1877 , but treated it as distinct. The validity of the species has been questioned in several subsequent works. Authors including Schuchert (1997) and Vervoort & Watson (2003) included it in the synonymy of A. secundaria ( Gmelin, 1791) . In more recent accounts ( Schuchert 2015; WoRMS), A. paucinoda is listed as a synonym of A. quadriaurita Ritchie, 1909 , a species it more closely resembles in having two lateral nematothecae of unequal size on either side of each hydrotheca. Given the present irresolution of its relationships, together with its Japanese type locality and the remote South Atlantic type locality of A. quadriaurita (Gough Island), we follow Hirohito in recognizing it as valid. The species is common in Sagami Bay ( Hirohito 1995).