Bougainvillia inaequalis Fraser, 1944a

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 : 12-13

Bougainvillia inaequalis Fraser, 1944a

Bougainvillia inaequalis Fraser, 1944a: 51 , pl. 5, figs. 20a–c.

Syntypes. AMNH 3247 : USA, Louisiana, off “ Passa Loutre ” (Pass a Loutre ), 5 miles (8 km) NNE, 15 fm (27 m), 23 January 1931, four monosiphonic colonies or colony fragments, in fair condition, up to 8 mm high, with tattered hydranths, without gonophores, coll. M. Burkenroad; formalin, now in ethanol.

AMNH 3248 : USA, Louisiana, East Bay , May 1930, one polysiphonic colony, in fair condition but much fragmented and tangled, with hydranths, with gonophores, coll. M. Burkenroad; formalin, now in ethanol.

AMNH 3251 : USA, Louisiana, off “ Passa Loutre ” (Pass a Loutre ), 15 fm (27 m), 1930, numerous (>100) fragments of a colony or colonies, in poor condition, up to 1.8 cm high, with very few hydranths, without gonophores, coll. M. Burkenroad; formalin, now in ethanol.

Lectotype, by present designation. AMNH 3248 : USA, Louisiana, East Bay , May 1930, one polysiphonic colony, in fair condition but much fragmented and tangled, with hydranths, with gonophores, coll. M. Burkenroad; formalin, now in ethanol.

Paralectotypes. AMNH 3247 : USA, Louisiana, off “ Passa Loutre ” (Pass a Loutre ), 5 miles (8 km) NNE, 15 fm (27 m), 23 January 1931, four monosiphonic colonies or colony fragments, in fair condition, up to 8 mm high, with tattered hydranths, without gonophores, coll. M. Burkenroad; formalin, now in ethanol.

AMNH 3251 : USA, Louisiana, off “ Passa Loutre ” (Pass a Loutre ), 15 fm (27 m), 1930, numerous (>100) fragments of a colony or colonies, in poor condition, up to 1.8 cm high, with very few hydranths, without gonophores, coll. M. Burkenroad; formalin, now in ethanol.

Type locality. USA, Louisiana: East Bay ( Fraser 1944a).

Current status. Valid.

Remarks. Fraser (1944a) described Bougainvillia inaequalis without designating name-bearing types. Nevertheless, type material of the species exists at the AMNH. One sample (AMNH 3248) is listed in the online database of the museum as the holotype, while another (AMNH 3247) is listed as a paratype. A third (AMNH 3251), not listed in the online database, is recorded on a card file as a paratype. The latter sample contains a label in Fraser’s handwriting, now much faded, supporting the type status of the material. As we interpret the Code (ICZN Art. 72.4.7), these three are syntypes. Hydroids of the species at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00181-001), collected 14 March 1946 from Aransas Bay, Texas (Arai 1977), are not part of the type series. Neither is a collection at the NMNH (USNM 51999) from Grand Isle, Louisiana, a location not included in the type locality. No type material of B. inaequalis was located in online databases of other museums.

Of the syntypes listed above, the lectotype selected here (AMNH 3248) clearly corresponds best with the species as described by Fraser (1944a). As noted above, it has been listed in the past, incorrectly, as the holotype. Although the specimen is fragmentary and in only fair condition, hydranths and gonophores are present on parts of the colony. The lectotype collection also contains stems of a tubulariid. Our lectotype designation restricts the type locality of B. inaequalis to East Bay, Louisiana, USA. Hydroids in the other two vials (AMNH 3247, AMNH 3251) are paralectotypes.

Notes on card files at the AMNH indicate that the syntypes were examined decades ago by William J. Rees (1913–1967), who concluded that materials in two of the samples (AMNH 3247, AMNH 3251) probably belong to a different species from that in the third (AMNH 3248). In our opinion, however, all are conspecific. Although we are somewhat less certain about the identity of hydroids in AMNH 3247, we believe they are simply younger specimens.

Bougainvillia inaequalis is listed as valid in works such as Vannucci & Rees (1961), Cairns et al. (2002), Calder & Cairns (2009), and WoRMS. Deevey (1950) questioned its validity, noting that it seemed to intergrade with B. carolinensis McCrady, 1859 . Defenbaugh & Hopkins (1973), following Fraser (1944a), distinguished B. inaequalis from B. carolinensis and B. rugosa Clarke, 1882 in having much wrinkled perisarc on stem and branches. That character is indeed striking, as apparent in the lectotype colony examined here and as illustrated in Fraser (1944a: pl. 5, figs. 20b, c). The nominal species is maintained in this work as valid, although further taxonomic studies of its trophosome and gonosome are warranted. In being an insufficiently described species, with its medusa stage unknown, records of B. inaequalis from New Zealand are doubtful ( Schuchert 1996).