Acryptolaria crassicaulis ( Allman, 1888 )

Peña Cantero, Alvaro L., Marques, Antonio C. & Migotto, Alvaro E., 2007, Revision of the genus Acryptolaria Norman, 1875 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Lafoeidae), Journal of Natural History 41 (5 - 8), pp. 229-291 : 245-247

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930701228132

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/AC456037-6002-625B-FE28-FD7E89CE6B4C

treatment provided by

Carolina

scientific name

Acryptolaria crassicaulis ( Allman, 1888 )
status

 

Acryptolaria crassicaulis ( Allman, 1888) View in CoL

( Figures 6 View Figure 6 , 15D View Figure 15 , 17E View Figure 17 ; Table VI)

Cryptolaria crassicaulis Allman 1888 View in CoL , p lvii, lxvii, lxviii, 41, Plate 19, Figures 3, 3a View Figure 3 .

Material examined

Holotype: BMNH 1888.11 .13.29, Challenger expedition, Sta. 344, off Ascension Island, 07 ° 549200 N, 14 ° 289200 W, 420 fathoms (756 m), volcanic sand. One colony consisting of several stems up to 65 mm long.

Description

‘‘Colony attaining a height of four inches [101.6 mm], profusely and very irregularly branched main stem’’ ( Allman 1888, p 41). Colony apparently composed of several stems growing tight together on a coral fragment. Longest stem ca 65 mm high.

Stem strongly polysiphonic; only distalmost branches monosiphonic. Stems branched more or less irregularly in one plane. Some basal branches becoming lower-order stems; branches up to five-order, sometimes anastomosing.

Hydrothecae alternately arranged in approximately one plane. Hydrotheca tubular, cylindrical in the free part; diameter softly decreasing towards basal part. Hydrotheca curved abcaulinarly, especially at distal part; ca two-thirds of adcauline wall adnate to internode. Free part of adcauline wall distinctly convex; adnate part only slightly convex. Abcauline wall straight basally, but clearly concave at distal third. Hydrothecal aperture circular, directed upwards. Rim even, sometimes with few short renovations.

Coppinia not observed.

Remarks

Allman (1888, p 41) characterized this species by the ‘‘profuseness and irregularity of its ramification, and for the great thickness of its stem and principal branches. The ultimate branches on the other hand are slender and flaccid. The hydrothecae are stout, and the exserted portion rather long. Here and there, and at uncertain intervals, slight constrictions may be noticed in the branches’’.

As indicated above, Acryptolaria crassicaulis has been regarded by some authors as conspecific with A. corniformis . Nevertheless, we consider that both species are valid. Acryptolaria corniformis has distinctly larger hydrothecae (cf. Table XV) and the hydrothecae are not so bent abcaulinarly as in A. crassicaulis , in which they are strongly abcaulinarly directed at distal third.

A variety of the species, Acryptolaria crassicaulis var. dimorpha , was described for the genus Cryptolaria by Ritchie (1911) from Australian waters, based on the presence of single hydrothecae. The subspecies was subsequently recorded by Jarvis (1922) for Solomon Islands. Millard (1967, p 174) properly stated that ‘‘as the ability to produce solitary hydrothecae is a feature common to many, and possibly all, Lafoeidae , it is not necessary to retain Ritchie’s variety dimorpha ’’, a position adopted by Gravier-Bonnet (1979, p 20).

Distribution

Off Ascension Island, 07 ° 549200 N, 14 ° 289200 W, 756 m, volcanic sand ( Allman 1888).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Cnidaria

Class

Hydrozoa

Order

Leptothecata

Family

Lafoeidae

Genus

Acryptolaria

Loc

Acryptolaria crassicaulis ( Allman, 1888 )

Peña Cantero, Alvaro L., Marques, Antonio C. & Migotto, Alvaro E. 2007
2007
Loc

Cryptolaria crassicaulis

Allman 1888
1888
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