Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859a

Calder, Dale R., 2010, Some anthoathecate hydroids and limnopolyps (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Hawaiian archipelago 2590, Zootaxa 2590 (1), pp. 1-91 : 20

Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859a

Fig. 8

Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859a: 109 , pl. 8, fig. 4.

Type locality. Firth of Forth , Scotland ( Wright 1859a) .

Material examined. Oahu: Hawaii Kai , on pilings of bridge over Highway 72, 21º17’06.60”N, 157º43’07.21”W, 0.1 m, 27.vii.2009, on small oyster shell, one colony, with stems up to 4 mm high, without gonophores, coll. D.R. Calder, ROMIZ B3821 .

Description. Hydroid colony up to 4 mm high, with both simple and sparsely branched stems, arising from a creeping hydrorhiza. Hydrocaulus monosiphonic, unbranched or with a few irregular, short, coneshaped branches each with a single terminal hydranth, narrowest at base, gradually expanding distally. Perisarc quite thick at base of hydrocaulus and on stolons of hydrorhiza, becoming thinner distally, irregularly smooth to wrinkled, nowhere regularly annulated, almost completely obscured by encrusting silt and other dirt, covering hydranth except for mouth region on hypostome, extending as tubular sheaths over proximal ends of tentacles. Hydranths vasiform, about 0.3 mm long, merging almost imperceptably with supporting hydrocaulus or branch; tentacles filiform, amphicoronate, in two close but distinctly separated whorls, about 14–15 in number, emerging through perisarcal sheath covering hydranth; hypostome low, conical.

Gonophores not seen.

Remarks. The taxonomy, nomenclature, and general biology of Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859a have been reviewed in a number of previous works, including Calder (1988), Hirohito (1988), Genzano & Zamponi (1999), Marques, Mergner et al. (2000), Vervoort (2006), and Schuchert (2007). Although small and inconspicuous, it has been reported over a wide area geographically and is considered to be essentially circumglobal in shallow, warm to temperate waters.

Reported distribution. Hawaii. New record.

Worldwide. Western and eastern Pacific; western and eastern Atlantic; Indian Ocean; 0–200 m ( Fraser 1938a; Millard 1975; Calder 1988; Hirohito 1988; Vervoort 2006; Schuchert 2007).