Redescription of the zooxanthellate Eudendrium moulouyensis (Eudendriidae: Hydrozoa) from the Mediterranean Sea

Eudendrium moulouyensis is a zooxanthellate hydroid originally described from the Chafarinas Islands (Alboran Sea, south-western Mediterranean) in summer 1991. According to the original description, this species can be identified due to the occurrence of symbiotic zooxanthellae in the entire endodermal layer of the colony (gastrodermis and tentacle endodermis), a unique feature among the Mediterranean Eudendrium species. However, several aspects of its life cycle and the extent of its phenotypical variability are still unknown. Since winter 2004, colonies of E. moulouyensis were recorded throughout the year from 0.5m to 30m depth from the southern Adriatic Sea (Otranto Channel) and the Gibraltar Strait (Alboran Sea). Additional specimens were collected from the northern Adriatic (Vis, Croatia), Sicily Channel (Pantelleria and Lampedusa Islands), and western Sardinia (Costa Paradiso). These findings offered the opportunity to describe for the first time the full life cycle and to elucidate several biological aspects related to phenotypical variation of colony morphology, vertical zonation, seasonality, zooxanthellae-polyp relationship, and cnidome morphology and distribution. The number and morphology of male gonophores per reproductive polyp is described here for the first time, providing a useful taxonomic character to easily discriminate Myrionema amboinense from E. moulouyensis. From the available information, the occurrence of M. amboinense in the Mediterranean Sea should be regarded as doubtful, if they are not accompanied by observations of cnidome, male gonophores or distinctly separate tentacles whorls. © 2008 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.