Hemiaegina minuta Mayer 1890

Hemiaegina minuta Mayer, 1890

(Fig. 3)

Hemiaegina minuta Mayer, 1890: 40, pl. 1, figs. 25–27, pl. 3, figs. 32–35, pl. 5, figs. 52,53, pl. 6, figs. 13, 33, 34, pl. 7, fig. 4; McCain, 1968: 61 –64, figs. 29, 30; McCain & Steinberg, 1970: 51; Gable & Lazo-Wasem, 1987: 637; Müller, 1990: 836; Serejo, 1997: 630 –632, fig. 1; Guerra-García, 2003a: 105 –106, fig. 10; Guerra-García 2003b: 6, 7, fig. 3; Guerra-García, 2004: 39 –40, fig. 32; Díaz et al., 2005: 5, 6, fig. 9; Krapp-Schickel & Guerra-García, 2005: 50 –51, fig. 3; Guerra-García, 2006: 443, fig. 43; Guerra-García et al., 2006: 171–174: figs. 14–16; Guerra-García et al., 2010: 303, fig. 6; Zeina & Abou Zaid, 2013: 228 –230, figs. 5–6; Paz-Ríos et al., 2014: 2539 –2540, fig. 9.

Hemiaegina quadripunctata Sundara Raj, 1927: 126 –127, pl. 18.

Hemiaegina costai Quitete, 1972: 165 –168, pls. 1–2.

Material examined. Sta. 7: 15 specimens associated with Galaxaura sp, turf algae and hydroids (1 male and 1 female used for drawings); sta. 10: 38 specimens associated with Colpomenia peregrina, Codium dichotomum, Digenia simplex and Dictyota dichotoma; sta. 12: 11 specimens associated with Obelia sp and some hydroids, sta. 14: 20 specimens associated with Polysiphonia sp.

Remarks. The material of this species collected during the present study agrees well with taxonomic descriptions of specimens from other areas. Zeina & Abou Zaid (2013) fully described a female specimen from the Red Sea, and in the present study we include also the lateral view figure of the male (Fig. 3). This species shows very little intraspecific variation among localities in spite of being distributed widely in tropical and temperate waters. The species has been taken in plankton tows (McCain, 1968), which could indicate that probably the species is able to survive easily in the water column, contributing to its global distribution. A complete description of this species is provided by McCain (1968) who designated a lectotype from Mayer’s type -series (Mayer, 1890). Detailed figures based on material from the Caribbean coast of Colombia are included in Guerra-Garcia et al. (2006)

Distribution. Type locality: Off Amoy, China (Mayer, 1890).

Other records: Red Sea, West coast of United States, Venezuela, Colombia, Gulf of Mexico, South Africa, Hawaii, Bora Bora, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Australia, India, Mauritius, South Arabian coast, Indonesia (for details of the localities see McCain, 1968, McCain & Steinberg, 1970; Guerra-Garcia, 2003a, 2004; Diaz et al., 2005; Krapp -Schickel & Guerra-Garcia, 2005, Guerra-Garcia 2006; Guerra-Garcia et al., 2006; Zeina & Abou Zaid, 2013, present study; Paz -Rios et al., 2014).