Helgicirrha cari (Haeckel, 1864)

Tima cari Haeckel, 1864: 332 .

Tima pellucida . – Schulze, 1874: 138, pl. 2 figs 6a-b. [not Geryonia pellucida Will, 1844 = Eirene viridula (Péron & Lesueur, 1810)]

Geryonia pellucida . ‒ Haeckel, 1879: 201, pl. 12 figs 1-2. [not Geryonia pellucida Will, 1844 = Eirene viridula (Péron & Lesueur, 1810)]

Helgicirrha schulzii Hartlaub, 1909: 86 . new synonym

Eirene viridula . ‒ Mayer, 1910: 311, fig. 172. [not Eirene

viridula (Péron & Lesueur, 1810)]

Tima plana Neppi, 1910: 165, figs 2, 2a-b. new synonym

Helgicirrha schulzei . ‒ Kramp, 1936: 254 [subsequent incorrect spelling]. – Russell, 1953: 328, figs 206-212, pl. 20 figs 1-2. – Kramp, 1959a: 159, fig. 218. – Kramp, 1961: 192. – Bouillon, 1971: 362, pl. 7-8, fig. 12. – Brinckmann-Voss, 1973: 68, figs 4-5. – Pagès et al., 1992: 27, fig. 28. – Cornelius, 1995: 238, fig. 55.

Helgicirrha cari . ‒ Kramp, 1936: 253. – Kramp, 1959a: 160,

fig. 219. – Kramp, 1961: 191.

Material examined: 1 specimen; France, Bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer, 43.6856°N 7.3178°E, 0 m depth; collection date 29.04.2016; DNA isolate 1153; 16S sequence KY363968, COI MF000519, 18 S KY363989 .

Diagnosis: Umbrella diameter 20-50 mm when mature, distinctly flatter than a hemisphere, apical jelly about 1/3 of total height, gastric peduncle broad, conical, length about bell-height (Fig. 9A). Stomach small, with cruciform mouth opening, drawn out into perradial lips to variable length, mouth margin folded to a variable degree. Velum narrow. 4 radial canals. Gonads thin, extending from stomach to close to bell margin. 40-50 larger bulbs each with a short and fine tentacle, between these bulbs 2-3 small bulbs that occasionally bear tentacle stumps. Most marginal bulbs with a pair of lateral cirri and a conical excretory papilla pointing into the subumbrella (Fig. 9D). 50-100 statocysts, each with 2-3 concretions.

Hydroid stage an athecate polyp with lateral medusa budding, for more details see Brinckmann-Voss (1973) and Bouillon (1971).

Distribution: North-western Europe south of Norway, Mediterranean, coast of West Africa, Benguela Current (Pages et al., 1992). Type locality: Nice, Mediterranean.

Remarks: Kramp (1936) revised the genera Eirene and Helgicirrha and kept H. cari distinct from the better known H. schulzii based on the presence of longer mouth lips in H. cari . As this is usually a rather variable character and not used to distinguish species of leptomedusae, it is rather doubtful that the two species are really distinguishable. Moreover, in Schulze’s (1874) illustration of the species, on which Hartlaub (1909) based the new name H. schulzii, the mouth lips are not significantly smaller than the ones observed here (Fig. 9C). These facts indicate that both nominal species are indistinguishable. Additionally, Laakmann & Holst (2013) published COI sequences of H. schulzii collected in the North Sea (GenBank numbers KC440021 and KC440025). The two haplotypes differed in one base pair. The COI sequence of the Mediterranean specimen in the present study also had only one nucleotide difference with the sequences from the North Sea. A difference of one base pair represents therefore evidently only an intraspecific variation (comp. also Laakmann & Holst, 2013; Schuchert, 2014, 2016; Zheng et al., 2014; Schuchert et al., 2017 for intraspecific COI variation in Hydrozoa).

To conclude, H. schulzii Hartlaub, 1909 must be regarded as a synonym of H. cari (Haeckel, 1864), with the latter having precedence.

The specific epithet of H. schulzii (original spelling) was modified to H. schulzei by Kramp (1936), arguing that the name refers to Schulze. However, this is incorrect as the epithet was likely meant to represent the Latinised form Schulze, which is Schulzi. The second i comes from the genitive declension. Although many subsequent authors used Kramp’s spelling, the correct spelling remains H. schulzii .