Paulinum

Júnior, Miodeli Nogueira, 2012, Gelatinous zooplankton fauna (Cnidaria, Ctenophora and Thaliacea) from Baía da Babitonga (southern Brazil), Zootaxa 3398, pp. 1-21 : 11-12

Paulinum sp.

(Fig. 27)

Material examined. 02/29/2008 —one medusa ( MZUSP 1631).

Description. The single medusa analyzed was dome-shaped, with four radial canals, four bulbs, two of them with a relatively small tentacle ending in a rather large swollen round tip. Scattered nematocysts on exumbrella, mainly near the radial and ring canals. No gonads observed.

Remarks. While the material examined clearly falls within the diagnosis of the rare genus Paulinum Brinckmann-Voss & Arai, 1988 : “Four thick radial canals and ring canal present; four marginal bulbs with adaxial thickenings, at least two of which bear stiff tentacles terminating in a round cnidocyst bulb.” ( Brinckmann-Voss & Arai 1988), its specific identification is hard to surely ascertain. It is similar to P. punctatum ( Vanhöffen 1911) , however the manubrium of the present material is longer and the swollen parts of its tentacles are much larger. Including the present record this genus was found only three times, however it may be the young medusa stages of Velella velella (Linnaeus) (Peter Schuchert, personal communication).

Distribution. This genus was previously found twice only; a single individual of P. punctatum from the Indian Ocean was described by Vanhöffen (1911), and a single individual of P. l i n e a t u m was described by Brinckmann- Voss & Arai (1988) from the Canadian Pacific coast. The single medusa reported here is the first record in the South Atlantic. If co-specific with V. velella it is widely distributed in Brazil and elsewhere ( Bouillon 1999; Migotto et al. 2002).

FIGURES 25–36. Hydractinia sp.1, specimen turned inside-out (25). Protiara sp., lateral view (26). Paulinum sp., lateral view (27). Eirene sp. (young E. viridula ?), lateral view (28), detail of the manubrium and distal portion of the peduncle (29) and detail of the margin showing tentacular bulb (tb) and rudimentary bulb (rb) (30). Eutima mira McCrady, 1857 , general view (31), detail of the manubrium and distal portion of the peduncle (32), detail of the margin showing a tentacular (notice absence of lateral cirri) and rudimentary bulbs (33) and detail of the margin showing a rudimentary bulb with lateral cirri (lc), a statocyst (es) on the right and marginal warts (mw) on the left (34). Octophialucium haeckeli ( Vannucci & Moreira, 1966) , lateral view (35) and oral view of an individual with seven lips (36).