Published January 24, 2012 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Clytia gigantea

Description

Clytia gigantea (Hincks, 1866)

Figs. 46, 47

Campanularia gigantea Hincks, 1866: 297.— Jäderholm, 1909: 69, pl. 7, figs. 1–3.

FIGURE 47. Clytia gigantea: gonotheca, ROMIZ B3917. Scale equals 0.5 mm.

Type locality. UK: Scotland, Lamlash Bay (Hincks 1866: 297).

Museum material. Kosterhavet, 58°53.093’N, 11°05.668’E, 20–30 m, 09.ix.2010, biological dredge, R / V Nereus, on tube of polychaete, one colony, up to 2.2 cm high, with gonothecae, ROMIZ B3917.

Remarks. This nominal species has sometimes been combined with Clytia hemisphaerica (Linnaeus, 1767). Cornelius (1982) considered them identical, and a number of recent authors, including me (Calder, 1991; Cairns et al. 2002), adopted that opinion. After examining the material above, however, Clytia gigantea (Hincks, 1866) is upheld as a valid species based on a combination of characters including its strikingly robust colony form, sparingly branched pedicels, and exceptionally large, elongate, gradually tapered hydrothecae. Moreover, hydrothecal cusps in C. gigantea are linguiform (Fig. 46) rather than wavy as in C. hemisphaerica. Specimens studied here were much like those reported earlier from Bohuslän by Jaderholm (1909: pl. 7, figs. 1–3). In reporting the species from the Oslofjord, Norway, Christiansen (1972) noted that some hydrothecae in his material reached 3 mm long. Ones exceeding 2 mm in length were observed on the hydroid colony reported herein from Kosterhavet.

Reports of Clytia gigantea from the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America (see below), need confirmation. The species, or a variant of it, has also been reported from Chile (Leloup 1974; Galea et al. 2009).

Gonophores of this species, examined here (Fig. 47), are previously unknown in Europe. Those of the variant form from Chile have been described and illustrated by Leloup (1974) and Galea et al. (2009).

Reported distribution. West coast of Sweden.—Bohuslän (Jäderholm 1909, as Campanularia gigantea).

Elsewhere.—Boreal waters of the North Atlantic from Norway to Great Britain in Europe (Hincks 1868; Christiansen 1972), and from Newfoundland to Cape Cod in North America (Fraser 1944); questionable records exist from the Mediterranean (e.g., Pieper 1884; Babić 1904), the Queen Charlotte Islands in the northeast Pacific (Fraser 1937, as Campanularia gigantea), and Chile (Leloup 1974; Galea et al. 2009).

Notes

Published as part of Calder, Dale R., 2012, On a collection of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Hydroidolina) from the west coast of Sweden, with a checklist of species from the region 3171, pp. 1-77 in Zootaxa 3171 (1) on pages 46-47, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3171.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5247704

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Collection code
R, V , ROMIZ
Event date
2010-09-09
Family
Campanulariidae
Genus
Clytia
Kingdom
Animalia
Material sample ID
B3917
Order
Leptothecata
Phylum
Cnidaria
Scientific name authorship
Hincks
Species
gigantea
Taxon rank
species
Type status
holotype
Verbatim event date
2010-09-09
Taxonomic concept label
Clytia gigantea (Hincks, 1866) sec. Calder, 2012

References

  • Hincks, T. (1866) On new British Hydroida. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, third series, 18, 296 - 299.
  • Jaderholm, E. (1909) Northern and Arctic invertebrates in the collection of the Swedish State Museum (Riksmuseum). IV. Hydroiden. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, ny foljd, 45 (1), 1 - 124.
  • Linnaeus, C. (1767) Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Pars II. Editio duodecima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii, Holmiae, pp. 533 - 1317.
  • Cornelius, P. F. S. (1982) Hydroids and medusae of the family Campanulariidae recorded from the eastern North Atlantic, with a world synopsis of genera. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology, 42, 37 - 148.
  • Calder, D. R. (1991) Shallow-water hydroids of Bermuda. The Thecatae, exclusive of Plumularioidea. Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Contributions, 154, 1 - 140.
  • Cairns, S. D., Calder, D. R., Brinckmann-Voss, A., Castro, C. B., Fautin, D. G., Pugh, P. R., Mills, C. E., Jaap, W. C., Arai, M. N., Haddock, S. H. D., & Opresko, D. M. (2002) Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Cnidaria and Ctenophora. Second Edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication, 28, 115 pp.
  • Christiansen, B. O. (1972) The hydroid fauna of the Oslo Fiord in Norway. Norwegian Journal of Zoology, 20, 279 - 310.
  • Leloup, E. (1974) Hydropolypes calyptoblastiques du Chili. Report No. 48 of the Lund University Chile Expedition 1948 - 1949. Sarsia, 55, 1 - 61.
  • Galea, H. R., Haussermann, V. & Forsterra, G. (2009) New additions to the hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from the fjords region of southern Chile. Zootaxa, 2019, 1 - 28.
  • Hincks, T. (1868) A history of the British hydroid zoophytes. John van Voorst, London, 338 pp.
  • Fraser, C. M. (1944) Hydroids of the Atlantic coast of North America. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 451 pp.
  • Pieper, F. W. (1884) Erganzungen zu " Heller's Zoophyten etc. des Adriatischen Meeres. " Zoologischer Anzeiger, 7, 164 - 169.
  • Babic, K. (1904) Uebersicht der Hydroidpolypen des adriatischen Meeres. Glasnik Hrvatskoga Naravoslovnoga Drustva, Godina, 15, 201 - 220.
  • Fraser, C. M. (1937) Hydroids of the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 207 pp.