Protiara

Protiara sp.

(Fig. 26)

Material examined. 01/24/2008 —one medusa (MZUSP 1626).

Description. Umbrella bell-shaped; mesoglea relatively thin laterally and thick in the apex, where it represents almost 1/3 of bell height. Four radial canals and four relatively large hollow bulbs with one tentacle each. Without ocelli. Manubrium occupying almost the entire sub-umbrelar cavity, with simple round mouth. Gonads interradial on manubrium walls.

Remarks. Although the genus Protiara Haeckel is somewhat doubtful since its type species is imprecise (Schuchert 2009b), the single medusa assigned here as Protiara sp. fits well the diagnosis of the genus given by Schuchert (2009b) as “ Protiaridae medusae without marginal cirri, four marginal tentacles, with or without ocelli, with four or eight smooth, vertical gonads in the adradial-interradial region, four simple oral lips, without mesenteries”. Among the two known species of the genus, the present material differs from P. haeckeli Hargitt, 1902 by the absence of an extended apical projection and tentacular bulbs not conical and from P. tetranema (Péron & Lesueur) by the absence of ocelli and gonads interradial, not perradial (Hargitt 1902; Kramp 1961).

Distribution. This genus has been found in North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean waters (Kramp 1961; Navas-Pereira & Vannucci 1991; Bouillon et al. 2004). This is the first record of the genus from the south Atlantic.