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Larval necrophilia: the odd life cycle of a pandeid hydrozoan in the Weddell Sea shelf

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Abstract

Colonies of an athecate hydroid were found at six stations in the high Antarctic (Weddell Sea) growing on dead specimens of Flabelligera mundata (Annelida, Polychaeta). All living specimens of F. mundata at the same stations were free of epibionts. Transplantation experiments showed that hydropolyps did not produce stolons on substrates other than the epidermal jelly coat and chetae of dead F. mundata specimens. The largest colonies (>1,000 polyps) producing medusa buds were cultured until medusa liberation: growth of medusae was then surveyed for the next 5 weeks, but development of adult features was extremely slow. Young medusae were ascribed to the suborder Pandeida by the presence of two main characters, namely (1) hollow marginal tentacles, and (2) a mouth with four simple lips. Considering polyp and young medusa features, this species is acknowledged as newly recorded for the Southern Ocean, and assigned to the genus Neoturris (Hydroidomedusae, Pandeidae).

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Prof. Wolf Arntz and to the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar Research, Bremerhaven, for the invitation to join the EASIZ III expedition and for the lab facilities on board the R.V. "Polarstern". We are grateful to H. Goerke (AWI, Bremerhaven) who drew our attention to the hydroid colonies on Flabelligera mundata, and to S. Grabbert (AWI, Bremerhaven) who kindly provided freshly caught planktonic copepods to feed hydropolyps and medusae. Special thanks to J.M. Gili and F. Pagés (Barcelona) for valuable insights during the whole EASIZ III cruise.

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  1. Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, Università di Lecce, Via per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    S. Piraino, D. De Vito & F. Boero

  2. Laboratoire de Biologie Marine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    J. Bouillon

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  1. S. Piraino
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  2. D. De Vito
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Correspondence to S. Piraino.

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Piraino, S., De Vito, D., Bouillon, J. et al. Larval necrophilia: the odd life cycle of a pandeid hydrozoan in the Weddell Sea shelf. Polar Biol 26, 178–185 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-002-0460-1

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