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
Family
Moerisiidae
Poche, 1914
Moerisiidae
Poche, 1914: 66
.
Diagnosis.
Capitate hydroids with solitary hydranths, or with simple stolonal colonies having a rudimentary creeping hydrorhiza; podocysts often present. Hydranths club-shaped to bulbous; tentacles moniliform to capitate, scattered over body or restricted to a band below hypostome; sometimes with polyp buds forming proximally; hypostome elongate.
Gonophores free medusae, borne on hydranth amongst or below tentacles. Medusa bell-shaped; radial canals four, simple, unbranched; marginal tentacles solitary, 4 or more and sometimes numerous, moniliform or with transverse clasps of nematocysts; tentacle bulbs with abaxial ocelli; statocysts absent. Manubrium typically cruciform to quadrate, extending outwards as perradial manubrial lobes over proximal ends of radial canals. Gonads on manubrium and manubrial lobes.
Remarks.
Authors of recent systematic works (e.g.
Petersen 1990
;
Cairns
et al.
2002
;
Bouillon
et al.
2006
;
Schuchert 2010
) have followed
Rees (1957b
,
1958
) in assigning
Moerisiidae
Poche, 1914
to
Capitata
Kühn, 1913
based on nematocyst complement and medusa morphology. The presence of stenoteles and desmonemes in particular indicates a closer relationship to capitate hydroids and medusae than to
Limnomedusae
Kramp, 1938
, where this family had been assigned earlier (
Naumov 1960
;
Kramp 1961
). This relationship has also been confirmed by molecular data (
Collins
et al.
2006
).
Petersen (1979
,
1990
) included two genera in
Moerisiidae
,
Moerisia
Boulenger, 1908
and
Odessia
Paspalew, 1937
, relegating
Ostroumovia
Hadži, 1928
to the synonymy of
Moerisia
.
Bouillon
et al
. (2006)
included a third genus,
Halmomises
von
Kennel, 1891
, in
Moerisiidae
but regarded its
type
species by monotypy,
H. lacustris
von
Kennel, 1891
(which they misspelled as
H. ancestries
), as of doubtful status. Three genera (
Moerisia
,
Odessia
, and
Halmomises
) and 12 species are assigned to the family in the World
Hydrozoa Database (
Schuchert 2009
)
. Taxonomic knowledge of
Moerisiidae
is still rudimentary, and current concepts of genera and species need reexamination.