Names of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) established by Charles McLean Fraser (1872 - 1946), excluding those from Allan Hancock Expeditions
Author
Calder, Dale R.
Author
Choong, Henry H. C.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-10-02
4487
1
1
83
journal article
29136
10.11646/zootaxa.4487.1.1
939f52d6-d58b-4a22-8aec-dd5c6a591067
1175-5326
1456161
524B23B9-8EAA-4BD6-8937-A1B8F1C057B9
Halecium diminutivum
Fraser, 1940a
Halecium diminutivum
Fraser, 1940a
: 578
, pl. 33, figs. 6a, b.
Holotype
.
USNM 43438
:
USA
,
Massachusetts
,
Nantucket Shoals
,
on
Sertularella
sp., one colony,
1.2 mm
high, in fair condition, without gonothecae, labelled “
type
”; ethanol.
Schizoholotype.
BCPM 976-00474-001
:
USA
,
Nantucket
,
on
Sertularella
sp., one colony fragment, in fair condition, without gonothecae; slide.
Type
locality.
USA
,
Massachusetts
: on
Nantucket Shoals
, epizoic
on
Sertularella
(
Fraser 1940a
)
.
Current status.
Valid.
Remarks.
The “
type
” of
Halecium diminutivum
, as designated by
Fraser (1940a)
, is justifiably listed as a
holotype
in the online database of the NMNH (USNM 43438). Several other species of hydroids occur with the
holotype
, including sertulariids, sertularellids, symplectoscyphids, and campanulariids. A slide of the species, from the same sample and on the same substrate (a species of
Sertularella
), exists in the Fraser Hydroid Collection at the RBCM (BCPM 976-00474-001). With the species having been based on a single specimen (
Fraser 1940a
) from Nantucket Shoals, and with no subsequent records of the species having been reported from the
type
locality (
Fraser 1944a
,
1947a
), we consider the RBCM material to be a fragment of the
holotype
(i.e., a schizoholotype).
This is a miniscule (to
1.2 mm
high), easily overlooked, and poorly known species, reported only from two locations (the type locality of Nantucket Shoals, and also off Chatham Light) on the coast of Massachusetts, USA (
Fraser 1944a
). The gonosome has yet to be described.
Halecium diminutivum
is held to be valid in
Cairns
et al
. (2002)
and WoRMS.