Aglaophenia dubia Nutting, 1900

Calder, Dale R., 2013, Some shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the central east coast of Florida, USA, Zootaxa 3648 (1), pp. 1-72 : 45-46

Aglaophenia dubia Nutting, 1900

Fig. 14a

Aglaophenia gracilis Allman, 1877: 42 , pl. 25, figs. 1–4 [invalid junior primary homonym of Aglaophenia gracilis Lamouroux, 1816 ].

Aglaophenia dubia Nutting, 1900: 92 , pl. 18, fig. 5 [replacement name for Aglaophenia gracilis Allman, 1877 ].

Aglaophenia elongata .— Bogle, 1975: 101, fig. 7.— Jones 2002: 218 [not Aglaophenia elongata Meneghini, 1845 ].

Type locality. USA: Florida, off Carysfort Reef ( Allman 1877: 43, as Aglaophenia gracilis ) .

Voucher material. Off St. Lucie Inlet, 27°11.8’N, 80°00.6’W, 137 feet (42 m), 17.v.1976, Johnson-Sea-Link, JSL 2047, three cormoids, up to 8.8 cm high, without gonophores, coll. G. Melton, ROMIZ B1125 .— Of Jupiter Inlet , 26°57.6’N, 79°59.4’W, 48 m, 17.i.1974, R/ V Gosnold Station 216/128, 20-foot otter trawl, two cormoids, up to 4.8 cm high, without gonophores, ROMIZ B3976 .— Off St. Lucie Inlet, 27°10.8’N, 80°00.8’W, 44 m, 03.ii.1977, Johnson-Sea-Link, JSL 2161, one cormoid, 1.6 cm high, without gonophores, coll. F. Stanton, ROMIZ B3977 .

Remarks. This species was originally described from southeastern Florida as Aglaophenia gracilis by Allman (1877). That name is a permanently invalid junior primary homonym of Aglaophenia gracilis Lamouroux, 1816 (ICZN Art. 57.2). Nutting (1900) recognized the homonymy and proposed Aglaophenia dubia as a replacement name for Allman’s species.

Aglaophenia dubia was referred to the synonymy of A. elongata Meneghini, 1845 , a Mediterranean species, by Bedot (1921). Some subsequent authors who studied the species adopted that proposed synonymy ( Leloup 1937; Van Gemerden-Hoogeveen 1965; Bogle 1975; Wedler 1975; Wenner et al. 1984; Jones 2002), while others did not ( Fraser 1944; Deevey 1954; Rees & Thursfield 1965; Vervoort 1968). Bogle (1975) noted several differences between her material from the Straits of Florida and the original account of A. elongata by Meneghini (1845), but with considerable reservation retained that name for the western Atlantic species. Hydroids of the same morphotype from Bermuda were compared by me ( Calder 1997) with accounts of the Mediterranean species by Svoboda & Cornelius (1991), as well as with material of A. elongata from Capo d’Enfola, Elba, Italy (ROMIZ B1231). A number of differences in the two were noted, particularly in corbula morphology. Corbulae of hydroids from Bermuda were elongate rather than egg-shaped, there were 6–14 instead of 4–6 pairs of nematocladia, free ribs were frequent instead of being absent, and peduncles bore 1–3 hydrothecae instead of just one. I therefore concluded that A. dubia was valid. Moreover, Svoboda and Cornelius noted that records of A. elongata outside the Mediterranean seemed erroneous.

Aglaophenia dubia and A. flowersi Nutting, 1900 , the latter originally described from near Sand Key, Florida, have been considered identical ( Leloup 1937; Bogle 1975; Calder 1997), and as such are simultaneous synonyms. Precedence was assigned to the name A. dubia following the First Reviser Principle (ICZN Art. 24.2) in nomenclature ( Calder 1997). Additional taxonomic remarks on A. dubia are given in Bogle (1975, as A. elongata ) and Calder (1997).

This species is usually found at intermediate depths in the warm western Atlantic. Its known bathymetric range is 11–274 m ( Bogle 1975, as A. elongata ).

Reported distribution. Atlantic coast of Florida. Off Carysfort Reef ( Allman 1877, as Aglaophenia gracilis ).—Straits of Florida ( Bogle 1975, as A. elongata ).—Biscayne Bay ( Jones 2002, as A. elongata ).

Western Atlantic. South Carolina/Georgia continental shelf ( Wenner et al. 1984, as A. elongata ) to Brazil (Oliveira et al. submitted), including Bermuda ( Calder 1997), the Gulf of Mexico ( Calder & Cairns 2009), and the Caribbean Sea ( Bogle 1975, as A. elongata ).

Elsewhere. Questionably reported from the Galápagos Islands ( Fraser 1938b).

Figures

FIGURE 14. a, Aglaophenia dubia: part of a hydrocladium with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1125, scale equals 0.10 mm. b, Aglaophenia latecarinata: part of a hydrocladium with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1086, scale equals 0.10 mm. c, Aglaophenia rhynchocarpa: part of a hydrocladium with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1083, scale equals 0.10 mm. d, Aglaophenia trifida: part of a hydrocladium with three hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1086, scale equals 0.10 mm. e, Gymnangium speciosum: part of a hydrocladium with three hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1131, scale equals 0.20 mm. f, Macrorhynchia allmani: part of a hydrocladium with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B3982, scale equals 0.10 mm. g, Macrorhynchia clarkei: part of a hydrocladium with two hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1129, scale equals 0.10 mm. h, Macrorhynchia clarkei: a single phylactogonium from a pseudocorbula, ROMIZ B1129, scale equals 0.25 mm. i, Macrorhynchia philippina: part of a hydrocladium with three hydrothecae, ROMIZ B1092. Scale equals 0.10 mm.