Family RHABDOPLEURIDAE

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Family RHABDOPLEURIDAE

Compiler and date details

C. Burdon-Jones, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Introduction

The Rhabdopleuridae Harmer, 1905 comprises one genus, Rhabdopleura Allman, 1869, which has four extant species and twelve named, and several unidentified fossil species. Among these are species ascribed to three genera, Rhabdopleurites, Rhabdopleuroides and Eorhabdopleura all now recognised as synonyms of Rhabdopleura (see Chapman et al. 1995).

The literature contains descriptions of seven extant species of Rhabdopleura—R. normani Allman, 1869; R. mirabilis G.O. Sars, 1872; R. compacta Hincks, 1880; R. grimaldi Jullien, 1890; R. manubialis Jullien & Cabret, 1903; R. striata Schepotieff, 1909; and R. annulata Norman, 1921. In his observations on the morphology of Rhabdopleura, Lankester (1884) concluded that the form of the colony was so variable that R. mirabilis Sars and R. normani should be regarded as synonymous. Subsequently, Schepotieff (1907) concluded that all the North Atlantic species, viz. R. mirabilis, R. normani, R. grimaldi, R. manubialis and R. compacta were also synonymous for similar reasons. However, R. compacta has was rediscovered, redescribed and reinstated by Stebbing (1970).

The four currently recognised species are variously distributed throughout the Atlantic (including the Mediterranean Sea), Pacific and Indian Oceans. One, R. normani, seems to be the dominant species in the Atlantic Ocean, and has been recorded from the Arctic to Tristan da Cunha, once from the Antarctic (?), and probably once from the tropical Pacific (Harmer 1905, 1926; Broch 1927; Bergenson & Broch 1932; Kluge 1948; Burdon-Jones 1954; Laubier 1964; Stebbing 1970; Yaragal & James 1979; Dilly & Ryland 1985). When Broch (1927) recorded the rediscovery of Rhabdopleura normani, all the species of Rhabdopleura that had been described were thought to be synonymous (Schepotieff 1909).

Rhabdopleura annulata has been collected at widely separated sites from Indonesian waters, Irian Jaya, along the coast of Australia (QLD, VIC, TAS, SA, WA) to the northern tip of New Zealand, andprobably once from the Antarctic (?) (Broch 1927). From published and museum records and specimens examined during the course of this work, it seems likely that Rhabdopleura annulata will prove to be the dominant species in the tropical and subtropical western Pacific region.