Catablema multicirratum Kishinouye, 1910

Schuchert, Peter, 2018, DNA barcoding of some Pandeidae species (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Anthoathecata), Revue suisse de Zoologie 125 (1), pp. 101-127 : 118-120

Catablema multicirratum Kishinouye, 1910

Figs 12-13

Catablema multicirrata Kishinouye, 1910: 24 .

Catablema multicirrata . ‒ Bigelow, 1913: 19, pl. 1 figs 4-7. ‒ Hartlaub, 1914: 321. ‒ Kramp, 1926: 91, pl. 2.‒ Uchida, 1927: 213. ‒ Uchida, 1933: 130 fig. 6. ‒ Uchida, 1940: 286. ‒ Uchida, 1969: 286. ‒ Arai & Brinckmann-Voss, 1980: 44, fig. 20. ‒ Wang et al., 2014: 99, fig. 12.

Catablema multicirratum . – Kramp, 1961: 96. – Kramp, 1968: 50, fig. 133

Perigonimus multicirratus . – Naumov, 1969: 204, fig. 71.

Perigonimus breviconis . – Naumov, 1969: 204, fig. 72. [not Neoturris breviconis ( Murbach & Shaerer, 1902) ] Type locality: Paramushir Island , Kuril Islands, Pacific Ocean .

Material examined: 1 specimen, not in permanent collection; USA, Friday Harbor Laboratories , floating docks, 48.54514° -123.01206°, 0.5 m depth; collection date 19.05.2011; depicted in Fig. 12 ; DNA isolate 868; GenBank numbers of sequences see Table 1 . ‒ Tissue samples and photos of two medusae here identified as Catablema cf. multicirratum from north of Svalbard obtained from Aino Hosia (University Museum of Bergen); the rest of the medusae in the collections of the Bergen Museum. The collection data are given in Table 1 .

Diagnosis: Catablema medusa with umbrella height and diameter 30 to 65 mm including large dome-like apical projection corresponding to about half the total bell height. Manubrium with very broad, quadrangular base, long mesenteries, mouth margin variably folded, gonadal folds oblique to vertical, few or no pits. Mature animals with 80 to 160 tentacles, without or only few marginal bulbs between tentacles in adult specimens. Radial canals relatively short but very broad and with large, complex lateral outgrowths. No ocelli observed. Stomach and marginal bulbs light orange in living specimens.

Hydroid not known.

Remarks: Catablema multicirratum was somewhat inadequately described by Kishinouye (1910), with the sole diagnostic character distinguishing it from C. vesicarium being the tentacle number, given as “several hundreds.” This must certainly be erroneous. Bigelow (1913) then described and illustrated new material from the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. The species was subsequently also recorded from the west coast of Greenland by Kramp (1926). The Atlantic medusae were distinctly smaller, but had the same high number of tentacles. Although the species has been reported regularly (see Arai & Brinckmann-Voss, 1980; Wang et al., 2014), only a few specimens have been documented. It seems that it has sometimes also been confused with N. breviconis (e.g. Naumov, 1969). According to our current knowledge the tentacle number permits a reliable separation of C. vesicarium and C. multicirratum .

The Pacific specimen of Catablema multicirratum used for this study was identified based on Arai & Brinckmann-Voss (1980). The single animal was very large, reaching 6.5 cm in height ( Fig. 12 ) and had approximately 100 tentacles. It was thus easily separable from the Catablema vesicarium nodulosum ( Fig. 11 ) found at the same place. The two medusae from Svalbard ( Fig. 13 ) were smaller and had denser tissues with a darker orange colour than the Pacific specimen.

While morphologically separable, the status of the species remains somewhat problematic when using 16S, COI, and ITS sequence data. 16S and ITS sequences cannot be used to separate C. multicirratum from C. vesicarium ( Fig. 8 ; Table 2 ). COI has about three times higher divergence values than 16S and permits to discern somewhat more structure in the Catablema clade ( Fig. 9 ). The Pacific Catablema multicirratum separates from both, C. vesicarium and the Atlantic C. multicirratum . The Atlantic form is thus perhaps also an independent lineage and it was therefore named here C. cf. multicirratum .

The BOLD barcode database contains some additional COI sequences of Catablema samples, mostly identified as C. vesicarium . The origin of the material is from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Canada, but unfortunately the identifications are unreliable and the accompanying photos virtually useless. Due to the doubtful identities, these sequences were therefore not included in the analyses of this study. Adding nevertheless these sequences to the ML-analysis (results not shown), the results remain similar to the one shown in Fig. 9 . Catablema appears to be split into three clades with relatively low divergences: C. vesicarium , C. multicirratum , and Catablema from Svalbard.

However, it must be concluded that more Catablema samples with a thorough documentation and identification of the specimens are needed before any reliable conclusion is possible. Markers with more resolving power (e.g. microsatellites) might be necessary to settle the status of all nominal Catablema species. It is still possible that they all represent only different age groups and local variants.

Figures

Fig. 12. Catablema multicirratum, living medusa from Friday Harbor, WA, USA, bell size about 6.5 cm, about 100 tentacles. The individual was used to obtain the DNA sequences of this study (DNA 868, see Table 1). (A) Whole medusa. The circular spot on the apical process is an area where the epidermis is lost due to contact with the water-air interface. (B) Detail of stomach with gonad folds. (C) Detail of umbrella margin with tentacles.

Fig. 13. Catablema cf. multicirrata, living subadult specimen from Svalbard (sample DNA 1139), photo courtesy of Aino Hosia. Note the high number of tentacles, estimated about 140 combined with the moderate size of the bell.

Fig. 11. Catablema vesicarium nodulosum, living medusa from Friday Harbor, WA, USA, bell height about 2 cm, the individual was used to obtain one of the DNA sequences of this study.

Fig. 8. 16S maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of Pandeidae species obtained with PhyML (GTR+G+I model) and based on 595 bp positions of the mitochondrial 16S gene. Node-support values are bootstrap values of 100 pseudoreplicates (shown only if > 70%). For more details see text and Table 1. Samples based on the polyp stage are indicated, all others are medusa samples.

Fig. 9. COI maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of Pandeidae species obtained with PhyML (GTR+G+I model) and based on 664 bp positions of the mitochondrial COI gene. Node-support values are bootstrap values of 100 pseudoreplicates (shown only if> 70%). For more details see text and Table 1. Samples based on the polyp stage are indicated, all others are medusa samples.