Plumularia setacea ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Gil, Marta, Ramil, Fran & Agís, José Ansín, 2020, Hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from Mauritanian Coral Mounds, Zootaxa 4878 (3), pp. 412-466 : 454

Plumularia setacea ( Linnaeus, 1758)

Plumularia setacea: Ramil & Vervoort, 1992: 191–193 , fig. 47F–I; Ansín Agís et al., 2001: 238–245, fig. 91; Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa, 2002: 117–119, fig. 21C–D; Vervoort, 2006: 259; Ansín Agís et al., 2014: 824, fig. 22.

Material examined. MAURIT-0911, stn MUDR 01, 16º08´24”N, 16º57´12”W, 488 m, 5-XII-2009: six colonies, one colony growing on Lophelia pertusa and two on Aglaophenia lophocarpa ; one colony with gonothecae.

MAURIT-0911, stn MUDR02 , 16º08´50”N, 16º57´01”W, 462 m, 5-XII-2009: one colony, no gonothecae .

MAURIT-1011, stn MUDR20 , 16º08´11”N, 16º56´08”W, 405 m, 7-XII-2010: one colony on Nemertesia sp., without gonothecae .

MSM 16 /3, stn GeoB 14801–1, 20°14.762’N, 17°40.173’W, 568 m, 3-XI-2010: three colonies on Aglaophenia lophocarpa , no gonothecae .

Biology. Plumularia setacea usually grows attached to other hydroid species, but it can also colonize a wide range of other substrata ( Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa 2002). Fertile material has been found throughout the year ( Ansín Agís et al. 2014).

Our colonies were attached to the hydroids A. lophocarpa and Nemertesia sp. and the scleractinian coral L. pertusa ; fertile material has been found in December.

Distribution. This species has a circumglobal distribution with a bathymetric range from 0 to 1513 m ( Ansín Agís et al. 2001; Gil & Ramil 2017a). In West Africa, it was collected from Morocco ( Billard 1906b; Patriti 1970; Ansín Agís et al. 2001), West Sahara (Vervoort 1946), Mauritania ( Ansín Agís et al. 2001; Gil & Ramil 2017a), Cape Verde Islands ( Bedot 1921b; Ansín Agís et al. 2001), Senegal ( Picard 1951), Guinea-Bissau ( Gili et al. 1989), Ghana ( Buchanan 1957), Angola ( Broch 1914; Bouillon et al. 1995) and Namibia ( Broch 1914; Gili et al. 1989).

The material studied by us was collected from depths of 405 to 568 m.

Remarks. This species is well-known and does not require further comments. Schuchert (2014) analysed the genetic diversity within P. setacea by using a set of worldwide samples, and the results suggested a species complex; however, they could also be considered as a single species with an extensive population subdivision.