Eutima mira McCrady, 1857

Júnior, Miodeli Nogueira, 2012, Gelatinous zooplankton fauna (Cnidaria, Ctenophora and Thaliacea) from Baía da Babitonga (southern Brazil), Zootaxa 3398, pp. 1-21 : 13

Eutima mira McCrady, 1857

(Figs. 31–34)

Material examined. 11/16/2007 one medusa with the gonads beginning to develop ( MZUSP 1619); 01/24/2008, two young and six adults medusae ( MZUSP 1618); 04/25/2008, one adult medusa; 05/26/2008, one young and one adult medusa.

Remarks. The 12 medusae assigned to this species varied from 2.5 to 10 mm in bell diameter and completely match the several available descriptions of E. mira . The presence of only four tentacles in addition with the configuration of the gonads (four on the sub-umbrellar portion of the radial canals, and four on the gastric peduncle) is diagnostic for E. mira within the 23 recognized species of the genus ( McCrady 1857; Kramp 1961; Goy 1979; Bouillon 1999; Bouillon et al. 2006; Guo et al. 2008; Schuchert 2009a) and easily differentiate it from the other two Brazilian species, E. coerulae (L. Agassiz) and E. sapinhoa Narchi & Hebling, 1975 , which possess only four gonads ( Narchi & Hebling 1975, Migotto et al. 2002, 2004). Reports on E. mira indicate that their tentacular bulbs may or may not have lateral cirri. All medusae analyzed herein had cirri on rudimentary bulbs only.

Distribution. E. mira can be found in China Seas and is widely distributed along the western Atlantic coast of USA ( Kramp 1961). In the southwestern Atlantic there are two records off northeastern Brazil—around Fernando de Noronha Island (~ 3°51’ S; Vannucci 1957, 1958), and off Alagoas (~9°S) and Bahia coastal waters (12°56’S and 16°29’S; Goy 1979) – as well as two additional records from the temperate Argentinean shelf (37–38°S; Zamponi 1983a; Zamponi & Suárez, 1991). The present finding is the first record of this hydromedusa from the south Brazilian coast and fulfills a gap of its known distribution.