Plumularia setacea

Plumularia setacea

(fig. 4E)

Sertularia setacea Linnaeus, 1758: 813.

Plumularia setacea.— Da Cunha, 1944: 30, figs 12–13.— Ansín Agís et al., 2001: 238 -, fig. 91.—Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa, 2002: 117–119, fig. 21c–d.— Bouillon et al., 2004:175 –176, fig. 95A–E.— Moura et al., 2012a: 95 –96, fig. 7.— Schuchert, 2014: 117 –118, figs 2A–B, 4, 5A–F, 6A–C.

Material studied. Ormonde, stn 2: few stems, fertile, on hydrorhiza and hydrocauli of one colony of Aglaophenia pluma; DBUA 1526.03. Gettysburg, stn 5: small and fertile colonies, on two colonies of Aglaophenia pluma; with hydrocladia ramified; DBUA 1526.01. Gettysburg, stn 6: some shoots on four cormoids, fertile, on Aglaophenia pluma; DBUA 1526.02. Gettysburg, stn 8: some small colonies on cormoids of Aglaophenia kirchenpaueri, DBUA 1502.03. Gettysburg, stn 10: some small cormoids on hydrocauli of two cormoids of Aglaophenia kirchenpaueri; DBUA 1124.01; Genbank accession no. JN714608.

Remarks. This species was previously recorded in the Gorringe Bank at 250 meters depth (Ramil et al. 1998b). Some colonies of stations 2 and 5 had ramified hydrocladia. The 16S sequence determined of a colony from the Gettysburg seamount (stn 8) retrieved an exclusive haplotype that falls in a clade, with low sequence divergence, with a range of specimens from the European coasts, western Mediterranean and Azores (Moura et al. 2012a). Because P. setacea was originally described from the UK (Ellis 1755: 19, as Corallina setacea; Linnaeus, 1758), molecular phylogenetic analyses further corroborated the taxonomic identification of the Gorringe specimens (Moura et al. 2012a).

Preliminary phylogenetic analyses of Moura et al. (2012a) already suggested that a complex of cryptic species have been identified under the name P. setacea (see also Schuchert 2014), being necessary the resurrection of some described species presently in its synonymy, as well as description of cryptic taxa, basing on more extensive molecular and morphological analyses.

Reported distribution. Eastern Atlantic.— Iceland (Broch 1918), Faroes (Naumov 1969), Shetland Islands (Rees & Thursfield 1965), Norway (Bonnevie 1899; Christiansen 1972), Sweden (e.g. Jäderholm 1909; Calder 2012), Heligoland (Broch 1928), North Sea (e.g. Broch 1928; Vervoort 1942; Rees & Thursfield 1965), Ireland (e.g. Guiry & Guiry 2011), UK (e.g. Hincks 1868; Cornelius, 1995b), Netherlands (e.g. Leloup 1933; Vervoort 1946b), Belgium (e.g. Van Beneden 1867; Leloup 1947, 1952), Channel Islands (Philbert 1935), France (e.g. Billard 1902, 1904), Bay of Biscay (Browne 1907), Spain (e.g. Arévalo 1906; Rioja 1906; Ramil 1988; Medel & López-González 1996), Portugal (e.g. Nobre 1931; Da Cunha 1940, 1944, 1950; Moura et al. 2012a), the Gulf of Cadiz (Billard 1906), Strait of Gibraltar (Broch 1913; Ramil & Vervoort 1992b; Medel & Vervoort 1995), Gorringe (Ramil et al. 1998b; Moura et al. 2012a; present study), Ampère Bank (Ramil et al. 1998b), Azores (e.g. Pictet & Bedot 1900; Rees & White 1966; Ansín Agís et al. 2001; Moura et al. 2012a), Madeira (Billard 1906; Patriti 1970; Ansín Agís et al. 2001; Wirtz 2007), Selvagens (Ansín Agís et al. 2001), Canary Islands (Ansín Agís et al. 2001); Morocco (Billard 1906; Patriti 1970; Ansín Agís et al. 2001), Western Sahara (Vervoort 1946a), Cape Verde (Bedot 1921; Ansín Agís et al. 2001), Mauritania (Ansín Agís et al. 2001), Senegal (Picard 1951a; Patriti 1970), Guinea Bissau (Gili et al. 1989), Ghana (Buchanan 1957), Angola (Broch 1914), Namibia (Broch 1914; Gili et al. 1989), South Africa (e.g. Stechow 1925; Millard 1975).

Mediterranean.—Strait of Gibraltar (Ramil & Vervoort 1992b; Medel & Vervoort 1995), Spain (e.g. De Haro 1965; García Corrales et al. 1978; García Carrascosa 1981; Gili & García Rubies 1985; Roca 1986; Medel & López-González 1996), Alborán Sea (Ramil & Vervoort 1992b; Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa 2002), France (e.g. Stechow 1919; Leloup 1934b; Picard 1951b, 1952), Algeria (Picard 1955), Italy (e.g. Rossi 1961; Boero & Fresi 1986; Puce et al. 2009), Adriatic (e.g. Broch 1912, 1933; Riedl 1970), Greece (Yamada 1965), the Aegean Sea (Morri & Bianchi 1999), Turkey (Marinopoulos 1979).

Elsewhere.—Assumed to be circumglobal but possibly absent in polar regions (e.g. Ansín Agís et al. 2001), although many taxonomic identifications seem erroneous due to cryptic diversity (Moura et al. 2012a; Schuchert 2014; see Remarks above).