Antennella curvitheca Fraser, 1937b

Calder, Dale R. & Choong, Henry H. C., 2018, Names of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) established by Charles McLean Fraser (1872 - 1946), excluding those from Allan Hancock Expeditions, Zootaxa 4487 (1), pp. 1-83 : 54

Antennella curvitheca Fraser, 1937b

Antennella curvitheca Fraser, 1937b: 4 , pl. 2, figs. 7a, b.

Holotype. USNM 43291 : Puerto Rico, northeast coast near Las Cucarachas light, Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition Sta. 69, 18°24’30”N, 65°38’30”W, 9 fm (16 m), 24 February 1933, R/ V Caroline, one colony on an alga, ca. 5 mm high, in good condition, without gonophores, coll . Paul Bartsch, labelled “ type ” and “ holotype ”; ethanol.

Paratypes. BCPM 976-00816-001: Puerto Rico, north coast, Johnson Hydro Sta. 69, 9 fm (16 m), 24 February 1933, on algae, in fair condition, without gonothecae, labelled “co-type”; 60% IPA.

BCPM 976-00816-002 : Puerto Rico, north coast, Johnson Hydro Sta. 69, 9 fm (16 m), 24 February 1933, on an alga, one colony, up to 6 mm high, in fair to fairly good condition, without gonothecae; slide.

Type locality. Puerto Rico: 18°24’30”N, 65°38’30”W, 9 fm (16 m) ( Bartsch 1933, Sta. 69; Fraser 1937b).

Current status. Valid.

Remarks. The hydroid described as Antennella curvitheca by Fraser (1937b) was collected off the northeast coast of Puerto Rico during the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition. Material designated as the holotype by Fraser (USNM 43291), currently listed as a syntype in the NMNH online database, is taken to be a single colony after its examination here. Paratype material exists at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00816-001; BCPM 976-00816-002). No gonophores were present in Fraser’s material, but the species is distinctive in the curvature of the adcauline wall of the hydrotheca ( Schuchert 1997). Gonothecae have subsequently been described by Van Gemerden-Hoogeveen (1965) and Schuchert (1997).

Antennella curvitheca is considered valid ( Schuchert 1997; Cairns et al. 2002; WoRMS). Outside several locations in the Caribbean region ( Galea 2010), the species is now known to range from Plantagenet (=Argus) Bank, near Bermuda ( Calder 2000), to waters of the continental shelf off Brazil ( Grohmann et al. 2003).