Corymorpha forbesii (Mayer, 1894)

Fig. 24 A-B

Hybocodon forbesii Mayer, 1894: 236, pl. 1 fig. 1. – Mayer, 1910: 42, pl. 1 fig. 8, pl. 2 fig. 3. – Vanhöffen, 1913a: 414. – Uchida, 1927a: 193, fig. 30.

Hybocodon forbesi . – Kramp, 1959a: 87, fig. 36. – Kramp, 1961: 42. – Kramp, 1968: 13, fig. 22. [incorrect spelling]

Hybocodon forbessi . – Nair, 1951: 50, pl. 1 fig. 1. [incorrect spelling]

Vannuccia forbesii . – Brinckmann-Voss, 1967: 1, figs 1-6. – Brinckmann-Voss, 1970: 14, figs 9-11, pl. 1 figs 1-2. – Schmidt, 1973: 17. – Bouillon, 1978b: 268. – Bouillon et al., 2004: 93, fig. 49K-L.

Vannuccia forbesii f. kanti Bouillon, 1978a: 136.

Corymorpha forbesii . – Schuchert, 1996: 103, fig. 60a-c. – Schuchert, 2010: 386, fig. 15, synonymy, redescription.

Examined material: BFLA4045; 1 specimen; 01-APR- 2019; preserved in ethanol for DNA extraction; 16S sequence MW528642. – 24-JUN-2019; 1 specimen photographed, with male gonads, not collected.

Observations: Umbrella bell-shaped, height size 2 mm, higher than wide, no apical process or a slight apical thickening, no exumbrellar nematocysts. Manubrium spindle-shaped, length about 2/3 of subumbrellar height, simple mouth, gonads encircle manubrium without interruption. Four large marginal bulbs, all of similar size or bulb opposite tentacle larger than the two other atentacular bulbs, bulb surface covered with nematocysts. Only one single tentacle, rather stiff, length 1.5 the bell height, 2/3 of length isodiametric and with only few nematocysts, distal third a club-shaped terminal swelling with numerous nematocysts.

16S Data: A blastn search in GenBank using the sole 16S indicated Corymorpha glacialis as best match, although with only 84% identity. This species was followed by other Corymorpha and Aplanulata species with similar low identify scores.

Distribution: Florida, Bahamas, Brazil, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Seychelles, India, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, southern Japan, and New Zealand (Schuchert, 2010). Type locality: Bahamas; Nassau Harbour.