Plicatotheca anitae Calder & Vervoort, 1986

Calder, Dale R., 2013, Some shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the central east coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 3648 (1), pp. 1-72 : 14-15

Plicatotheca anitae Calder & Vervoort, 1986

Fig. 2c, d

Plicatotheca anitae Calder & Vervoort, 1986: 2022 , figs. 1–4.

Type locality. Bermuda: 2 km southeast of Castle Roads , 60–90 m ( Calder & Vervoort 1986) .

Voucher material. Off Sebastian Inlet, 27°52.5’N, 79°57.5’W, 75–98 m, 28.ii.1974, Smith-McIntyre grab, R/ V Gosnold Station 222/274D, six colony fragments, up to 1.5 cm high, with two gonothecae, ROMIZ B1072 .

Remarks. Plicatotheca anitae Calder & Vervoort, 1986 appears to be widely distributed, having been reported from the Pacific and Indian oceans as well as the western and eastern Atlantic. Although Bermuda is the type locality of the species, this is only the second record of it in the western Atlantic. It is a species of deeper waters, having a reported bathymetric distribution of 60–1480 m ( Vervoort 2006). Specimens examined here were collected at the upper end of this range, on the outer edge of the continental shelf off the east coast of Florida.

Gonothecae of Plicatotheca anitae are reported here for the second time. They correspond with the description of Gili et al. (1989), based on material from Guinea Bissau, western Africa, in being laterally flattened and triangular in shape. As with the specimens of Gili et al., gonothecae observed here were empty and the nature of the gonophore could not be determined.

Plicatotheca anitae resembles Campanulina denticulata Clarke, 1907 , originally described from abyssal depths (2845 fathoms = 5203 m) off Peru. In addition to trophosomal differences between the two noted earlier ( Calder 1991a), the gonotheca of P. anitae is now known to be triangular rather than long and irregularly cylindrical as in C. denticulata . Campanulina indivisa Fraser, 1948 from 267–347 fathoms (488–634 m) off Catalina Island, California, regarded as conspecific with C. denticulata by Vervoort (1966), was referred to Plicatotheca Calder & Vervoort, 1986 by Calder et al. (2009). That generic assignment is doubtful if gonothecae of C. indivisa , presently unknown, prove identical with those of C. denticulata .

Reported distribution. Atlantic coast of Florida. First record.

Western Atlantic. Bermuda ( Calder 1991a) to Florida (this study).

Elsewhere. Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions, from deeper neritic to bathyal depths ( Vervoort 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 2. a, Lovenella grandis: hydrocaulus with two hydrothecae and a gonotheca, ROMIZ B1076, scale equals 0.5 mm. b, Lovenella grandis: hydrocaulus with pedicel and hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1076, scale equals 0.25 mm. c, Plicatotheca anitae: part of hydrocaulus with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1072, scale equals 0.25 mm. d, Plicatotheca anitae: gonotheca, ROMIZ B1072, scale equals 0.25 mm. e, Lafoea intorta, sp. nov.: part of hydrocaulus with five hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1098, scale equals 0.25 mm. f, Lafoea intorta, sp. nov.: part of hydrocaulus with a hydrotheca, ROMIZ B1098, scale equals 0.10 mm.