Halecium corpulatum, Watson, 2012

Watson, Jeanette E., 2012, Some hydroids (Hydrozoa: Hydroidolina) from Dampier, Western Australia: annotated list with description of two new species., Memoirs of Museum Victoria 69, pp. 355-363 : 358

Measurements of Halecium corpulatum , (µm)

Remarks. The colony may have originally been much taller as it is broken off at the top. In many respects including the thickening at the base of many primary hydrophores Halecium corpulatum resembles Hydrodendron sibogae ( Billard, 1929) but the absence of nematothecae places it in Halecium . The few gonothecae available for study do not resemble those of any large arborescent species such as Halecium muricatum ( Ellis & Solander, 1786) , H. dichotomum Allman, 1888 and H. lankesteri ( Bourne, 1890) . The gonothecae however, resemble Gibbons and Ryland’s (1989) description of Halecium sibogae from Fiji; their specimen may well have been H. corpulatum .

While the unusually long skirt–like shape of the hydranth is probably an artefact of preservation the living hydranth nevertheless must have been extraordinarily large.

Etymology. Describes the large, corpulent hydranth.