Biofouling hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from a Tropical Eastern Pacific island, with remarks on their biogeography
Author
Calder, Dale R.
Author
Carlton, James T.
Author
Keith, Inti
Author
Ashton, Gail V.
Author
Larson, Kristen
Author
Ruiz, Gregory M.
Author
Herrera, Esteban
Author
Golfin, Geiner
text
Journal of Natural History
2022
2022-07-11
56
9 - 12
565
606
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2068387
journal article
126956
10.1080/00222933.2022.2068387
5ca061c2-0cbb-4434-a28a-fc6c60e7ed7c
1464-5262
7012486
Macrorhynchia philippina
Kirchenpauer, 1872
(
Figure 7c
)
Macrorhynchia philippina
Kirchenpauer, 1872: 19
.
Aglaophenia philippina
Kirchenpauer, 1872: 45
, text-fig. p. 17; pl. 1, fig. 26; pl. 2, fig. 26a, b; pl. 7, fig. 26.
Type
locality
Philippines
:
Manila
(
Kirchenpauer 1872
)
.
Material examined
Chatham Bay, dock 004, no coordinates, 1 colony,
3 cm
high, without reproductive structures, coll. G. Ashton, #266335.
Remarks
The reported geographic distribution of
Macrorhynchia philippina
Kirchenpauer,
1872
in the eastern Pacific Ocean extends from Gull Island, southern
California
,
USA
, and the Gulf of
California
,
Mexico
, to southern
Ecuador
(
Fraser 1947
,
1948
). It has been widely reported within that range, with collections from
Mexico
(White Friars, Morro de Petatlán, Tenacatita Point, islands off Navidad Head, Ildefonso Island, Tres Marias Island, San Lorenzo Channel, Guaymas Bay),
Costa Rica
(South Viradores Islands),
Panama
(Bahia Honda, Secas Islands),
Colombia
(Gorgona Island, Port Utria), coastal
Ecuador
(Santa Elena Bay, La Plata Island, San Francisco Bay, La Libertad), and the offshore
Galápagos Islands
(Isabela, Española, Santa Cruz,
San Cristóbal
, Marchena, Santiago) (
Fraser 1938a
,
1938b
,
1938c
,
1948
;
Calder et al. 2003
). In the Galápagos, it is one of the most conspicuous hydroids in the upper
10 m
on exposed coastal bottoms of the warmer eastern islands, usually occurring with
Pennaria disticha
Goldfuss, 1820
(D. Calder, personal observations,
16–22 June 2001
). Its occurrence on Cocos Island thus coincides with the known distribution of the species across the Tropical Eastern Pacific Realm. Elsewhere,
M. philippina
is taken to be essentially circumglobal in shallow tropical to warm-temperate waters (
Moura et al. 2018
;
Calder and Faucci 2021
). As with
Halopteris alternata
(
Nutting, 1900
)
, hydroids of the species from the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific have been shown to share the same 16S haplotypes (
Moura et al. 2019
).
Hydroids of
M. philippina
are venomous to humans (
Kirchenpauer 1872
, as
Aglaophenia urens
;
Gravely 1927
, as
Lytocarpus philippinus
;
Halstead 1988
, as
L. philippinus
;
Rifkin et al. 1993
, as
L. philippinus
;
Santhanam 2020
).
The absence of a planktonic stage that would permit natural long-distance transoceanic dispersal, combined with genetically identical populations in the Atlantic and Pacific, suggests that ship-mediated transport has likely played an important role in the distribution of this species. We regard it as likely native to either the Atlantic or Indo-West Pacific theatres, and introduced into the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
Reported distribution
Cocos Island: first record.
Elsewhere: circumglobal in shallow tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate seas (
Calder 1997
;
Ansín Agís et al. 2001
;
Schuchert 2003
;
Zhenzu et al. 2014
;
Moura et al. 2018
,
2019
;
Chakraborty and Raghunathan 2020
;
Calder and Faucci 2021
).