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
Genus
Eucuspidella
Fraser, 1944a
Eucuspidella
Fraser, 1944a
: 172
.
Type species.
Cuspidella pedunculata
Αllman, 1877, by monotypy.
Current status.
Valid.
Remarks.
Fraser (1944a)
concluded that
Cuspidella pedunculata
Allman, 1877
exceeded the bounds of the genus
Cuspidella
Hincks,
1866
in having a pedicellate rather than a
sessile
hydrotheca. He therefore established
Eucuspidella
for the species. Other characters distinguishing the genus were a tubular or fusiform hydrotheca that merged imperceptibly with the pedicel, opercular valves with no demarcation from the hydrothecal wall, and the absence of a diaphragm and nematophores. Gonophores of
E. pedunculata
, a minute species reported from bathyal waters (
475 m
) off the Dry
Tortugas
,
Florida
(Allman 1877), and with some uncertainty from
4798 m
in the Windward Passage north of
Haiti
(
Vervoort 1972
), remain unknown.
Eucuspidella
has been provisionally upheld as valid in some works (
Vervoort 1972
;
Calder 1996
;
Bouillon
et al
. 2006
). In others, it has been assigned to the synonymy of
Campanulina
Van Beneden, 1847
and to the family
Campanulinidae
Hincks, 1868
(e.g., WoRMS). That assignment is untenable given that
Campanulina tenuis
Van Beneden, 1847
, a widely misconceived hydrozoan having decidedly different morphological characters (see
Rees 1939
: 435–437; Calder 1991:5, 6), is the
type
species of that genus. Meanwhile, the family
Campanulinidae
Hincks, 1868
, as originally defined, is based on a misidentified
type
genus (
Campanulina
sensu Allman, 1864
, not
Campanulina
Van Beneden, 1847
). Widespread taxonomic confusion thus persists at present over the concepts of both
Campanulina
and
Campanulinidae
. As for its phylogenetic affinities,
Eucuspidella
cannot be assigned at present with confidence to any known family.