Monothecella Stechow, 1923

Watson, Jeanette E., 2011, Review of the genus Monotheca (Hydrozoa: Leptolida) from Australia with description of a new species and a note on Monothecella Stechow, 1923, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 68, pp. 71-91 : 71

Monothecella Stechow, 1923 .

Stechow (1923a) erected the genus Monothecella for three species ( Monotheca australis Kirchenpauer, 1876 ; Monotheca . aurita Bale, 1888 ; Monotheca compressa Bale, 1882 ), all of which have a hydrocladial median inferior nematotheca on a stout immovable base. The term monothalamic is usually applied to this structure, assuming that the distal cup is openly contiguous with its supporting peduncle. Detailed examination of fresh, preserved and mounted material of this suite of species (synonymised in M. australis , see discussion later) clearly shows that the cup is seldom completely open, and there is usually a faint line of demarcation between the cup and its base. The term monothalamic is therefore abandoned in the present context and the nematothecae regarded as incipiently bithalamic. For this reason, the genus Monothecella is untenable and is here synonymised in Monotheca .