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| Plumularia roxanae Galea, 2020 DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0026 |
Abstract
A new epiphytic, small-sized species of Plumularia Lamarck, 1816, P. roxanae sp. nov., is described based on fertile material from Bali, Indonesia. Its deep hydrothecae are characteristically narrowed distally through a distinctive hypertrophy of the free portion of their adaxial wall. Its minute gonothecae, however, are comparable in shape and size to those of the well-known, circumtropical P. floridana Nutting, 1900.
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| Plumularia roxanae sp. nov. (A) Portion of cormoid. (B) Detail of a portion of stem with proximal parts of four successive cladia. (C) Detail of a stem internode, showing centrally an apophysis and the proximal part of the corresponding cladium. (D) Proximal most hydrotheca. (E) Distalmost hydrotheca, note the absence of the distal part of its corresponding internode. (F) Portion of fertile stem with rows of gonothecae. (G) Gonotheca. (H) More detailed view of a gonotheca, showing apical aperture (arrowhead). Scale bars: 50 µm (H), 100 µm (C-E, G), 200 µm (B, F), 500 µm (A). |
Plumularia roxanae sp. nov.
Diagnosis: Small-sized, epiphytic Plumularia arising from stolon with perisarcal spurs, giving rise to monosiphonic stems divided homomerously by transverse nodes into rather short, collinear internodes, each with a subterminal cladial apophysis provided with an inconspicuous adaxial mamelon and a pair of axillar nematothecae; cladia heteromerously segmented by alternating straight and oblique nodes into short, ahydrothecate internodes occasionally provided with a nematotheca, and up to three, comparatively longer hydrothecate internodes accommodating a centrally-placed hydrotheca and its three associated nematothecae; hydrotheca deep, saccate, partly adnate, distal portion distinctly constricted through the hypertrophy of the free adaxial wall that adopts a triangular shape, considerably reducing the thecal lumen; abaxial wall slightly convex; gonothecae in two closely-set, parallel rows along the stem, borne on the cladial apophyses, minute, ovoid, thick-walled.
Etymology: It is my great pleasure to dedicate this new species to the memory of my late mother, Roxana S. Galea (née Florescu, 5 Oct. 1946 – 18 Jan. 1994), a Romanian biologist, who passed on to me her interest for natural sciences.
Horia R. Galea. 2020. Plumularia roxanae, A New Epiphytic Hydroid (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Plumulariidae) from the Indo-Pacific. Revue suisse de Zoologie. 127(2); 367-376. DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0026
