Some anthoathecate hydroids and limnopolyps (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) from the Hawaiian archipelago 2590
Author
Calder, Dale R.
text
Zootaxa
2010
2010-08-31
2590
1
1
91
https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.2590.1.1
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.2590.1.1
11755334
Genus
Craspedacusta
Lankester, 1880
Craspedacusta
Lankester, 1880: 147
.
Type
species.
Craspedacusta sowerbii
Lankester, 1880
, by monotypy.
Diagnosis.
Olindiid polyps solitary or primitively colonial. Hydranths atentaculate, athecate, club-shaped to cylindrical; distal end a knob-shaped capitulum, bearing an apical mouth surrounded by nematocysts; hydranth base with attachment region surrounded by thin perisarc; asexual reproduction by frustulation, cyst formation, or fission.
Gonophores medusae, arising from gastric column of hydranth. Medusae hemispherical to dome-shaped, with marginal nematocyst ring; radial canals four; centripetal canals absent; manubrium quadrate, moderately short, gastric peduncle absent; tentacles evenly spaced, of
one type
, lacking adhesive disks; statocysts in vesicles on velum; gonads sac-shaped, on radial canals.
Remarks.
Bouillon
et al
. (2006)
listed eight nominal species in
Craspedacusta
Lankester, 1880
, but speculated that they might all be conspecific with
C. sowerbii
Lankester, 1880
. Earlier,
He
et al
. (2000)
had recognized six species, while
Dumont (1994)
reported that four species were considered valid by most workers.
Jankowski (2001)
and
Jankowski
et al
. (2008)
believed there were as many as four species endemic to the Yangtze River Basin in
China
, the likely origin of the genus. Several species of the genus appear valid from molecular data (
Collins
et al.
2008
;
Zhang
et al
. 2009
). The species taxonomy of this enigmatic fresh water genus remains unsettled.