Halecium flabellatum 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 : 32

Halecium flabellatum Fraser, 1935b

Halecium flabellatum Fraser, 1935b: 108 , pl. 2, figs. 5a–c.

Syntypes. BCPM 976-00476-001 : Japan, Shio-no-misaki, Kii , Wakayama Prefecture, 23 May 1933, 33 m, female, labelled " type "; dry.

BCPM 976-00476-002 : Japan, Shio-no-misaki, Kii , Wakayama Prefecture, 23 May 1933, 33 m, male, labelled " type "; dry.

Lectotype, by present designation. BCPM 976-00476-001 : Japan, Shio-no-misaki, Kii , Wakayama Prefecture, 33 m, 23 May 1933, one desiccated colony, with female gonophores, labelled " type "; dry.

Paralectotype. BCPM 976-00476-002 : Japan, Shio-no-misaki, Kii , Wakayama Prefecture, 23 May 1933, 33 m, one desiccated colony, with male gonophores, labelled " type "; dry.

Type locality. Japan: Shio-no-misaki, Kii , Wakayama Prefecture, 30–35 m ( Fraser 1935b).

Current status. Valid.

Remarks. The specimens upon which Halecium flabellatum is based were sent to Fraser (1935b) for identification from the collection of Emperor Hirohito of Japan. No name-bearing type of the species was designated by him. Four samples of H. flabellatum are recorded in the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM. Two of them, listed above and both labelled “ type ” in what appears to be Fraser’s handwriting, are syntypes. Both are now dry. The specimens, with a single colony in each sample, were examined without being removed from their vials by us during this study. Although desiccated, major characters of the species as illustrated by Fraser (1935b) and Hirohito (1995) are still recognizable. In being the only syntypes, and in the expectation that at least partial rehydration might be possible, we have selected the female colony (BCPM 976-00476-001) as the lectotype. The male colony (BCPM 976-00476-002) is a paralectotype. The other two (976-00477-001: Sagami Bay, female; BCPM 976-00477-002: Sagami Bay, male) were not from the type locality and are not part of the syntype series. Specimens of H. flabellatum in NSMT collections (NSMT-HyR 1389: Japan, off Jôgashima, 108 m, 19 August 1936), recorded by Hirohito (1995), are also not syntypes.

Halecium flabellatum was regarded as valid by Hirohito (1995), a conclusion upheld in WoRMS.