Bedotella armata (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Lafoeidae) in the Bay of Biscay, with description of its gonothecae

Abstract

Bedotella armata (Pictet & Bedot, 1900), referable to the hydroid family Lafoeidae, is known principally from the Bay of Biscay. Gonothecae of this well known species are previously undescribed. Fertile colonies were collected at depths of 769 m and 893 m on the continental slope of the Cantabrian Sea, north of Spain. The gonothecae, described here, are large, strongly compressed, and disc-shaped suggesting that the Lafoeidae family should include genera charactenzed by compressed gonothecae.