Egmundella humilis Fraser, 1936c

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 : 26-27

Egmundella humilis Fraser, 1936c

Egmundella humilis Fraser, 1936c: 50 , pl. 1, figs. 2a–d.

Syntypes. BCPM 976-00291-001: Japan, Sagami Bay, 0 3 August 1934, 91 m, on a bryozoan, in poor condition; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00292-001: Japan, Sagami Bay, 18 January 1935, 91 m, on a bryozoan, in poor condition; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00293-001 : Japan, Sagami Bay , one colony, in fairly good condition, without gonothecae (?); slide.

BCPM 976-00293-002 : Japan, Sagami Bay , three colonies or colony fragments, in fair condition, without gonothecae; slide (damaged).

Lectotype, by present designation. BCPM 976-00293-001 : Japan, Sagami Bay , on a bryozoan, in fairly good condition, without gonothecae (?); slide.

Paralectotypes. BCPM 976-00291-001: Japan, Sagami Bay, 0 3 August 1934, 91 m, on a bryozoan, in poor condition; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00292-001: Japan, Sagami Bay, 18 January 1935, 91 m, on a bryozoan, in poor condition; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00293-002 : Japan, Sagami Bay , three colonies or colony fragments, in fair condition, without gonothecae; slide (damaged).

Type locality. Japan: Sagami Bay , on a bryozoan ( Fraser 1936c).

Current status. Valid.

Remarks. This species was described by Fraser (1936c) based on material sent to him on behalf of Emperor Hirohito. No name-bearing types were originally designated but the type series includes material in the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00291-001; BCPM 976-00292-001; BCPM 976-00293-001; BCPM 976-00293-002). Specimens in IPA (BCPM 976-00291-001; BCPM 976-00292-001) appear to have been dry sometime in the past and are now in poor condition. The best specimen in the syntype series, on a slide (BCPM 976-00293-001), is designated here as the lectotype. Although collection data accompanying the slide are incomplete, the specimen is known to have been collected in Sagami Bay and is almost certainly a fragment taken from one of the fluid collections as the species was being described.

Twelve lots of hydroids identified as Egmundella humilis , also collected from the type locality in advance of Fraser’s description of the species, exist in the Emperor Shōwa Hydroid Collection at the NMNS (NSMT-HyR 940–NSMT-HyR 951). We do not know whether Fraser examined any of these specimens, and we excluded them from the syntype series.

Specimens examined by Fraser (1936c) were said to be infertile. Although gonothecae are present on the two slides, it is uncertain that they are those of E. humilis because a clytiid is also present on the slide. In any case, the gonosome of the species was observed and described later by Hirohito (1995). Gonothecae described by him appeared to contain developing medusae.

Egmundella humilis is listed as valid in WoRMS. Galea (2013) included E. modesta Millard & Bouillon, 1975 from the Seychelles as a questionable synonym of this species.