Sphaerocoryne bedoti Pictet, 1893

Calder, Dale R. & Faucci, Anuschka, 2021, Shallow water hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the 2002 NOWRAMP cruise to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Zootaxa 5085 (1), pp. 1-73 : 9

Sphaerocoryne bedoti Pictet, 1893

Sphaerocoryne bedoti Pictet, 1893: 10 , pl. 1 figs 5, 6.— Calder, 2010: 67 , figs 44, 45.

Type locality. Indonesia: Moluccas, Ambon ( Pictet 1893) .

Voucher material. Midway Atoll , on coral rubble, 20.ix.2002, one colony, up to 6 mm high, without medusa buds, coll. A. Faucci, ROMIZ B3830 .

Remarks. A hydroid identified as Sphaerocoryne bedoti was described and illustrated earlier from the Hawaiian archipelago ( Calder 2010), based in part on a specimen from Midway Atoll examined again here (ROMIZ B3830). Recent comments on the species exist in that account, in Schuchert (2010), and in Maggioni et al. (2021). Of particular interest in the work of Maggioni et al. is discovery of species with hydroids much like those of S. bedoti , including Kudacoryne diaphana Maggioni , in Maggioni et al., 2021 from the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and Maldives, Euphysilla pyramidata Kramp, 1955 , an essentially circumglobal species, and Euphysilla sp. from the Caribbean Sea ( Martinique and Panama). They noted that hydroids of S. bedoti were distinguishable in colouration (hypostome white or yellowish, with a bright red band below it; gastric cavity with broadest part transparent or yellowish, and whitish below) and in having medusa buds in large clusters. Also similar is the hydroid currently known as Sphaerocoryne agassizii ( McCrady, 1859) , although it is distinguished by medusa buds with only two opposite, prominently capitate tentacles.

Reported Distribution. Hawaiian archipelago. Midway Atoll ( Calder 2010).

Elsewhere. Considered circumglobal in tropical and warm temperate waters ( Calder 2010; Schuchert 2010).