Olindiidae is a family of
hydrozoans
Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; ) are a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialize ...
in the order
Limnomedusae
Limnomedusae is an order of hydrozoans.
Taxonomy
The taxon was erected by Danish marine biologist Paul Lassenius Kramp in 1938 to accommodate certain families of hydrozoans with biphasic life histories. It includes genera with medusae with ect ...
. They have a
polyp phase and a
medusa
In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...
phase. The polyps are generally small (1 mm) and solitary, but a few species are colonial. They have a varying number of tentacles and can reproduce by budding. In the largest species, the medusae can grow to . Centripetal canals may be present or absent and the radial canals are unbranched. The
gonads are beside the radial canals, except in ''Limnocnida'', where they are on the manubrium. The fertilised eggs develop into
planula
A planula is the free-swimming, flattened, ciliated, bilaterally symmetric larval form of various cnidarian species and also in some species of Ctenophores. Some groups of Nemerteans also produce larvae that are very similar to the planula, which ...
larvae which become polyps. These multiply
asexually or can bud off medusae. In some species, medusae are only produced when the water temperature exceeds a certain level. Most species are marine, but several can also be found in
brackish water
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...
and a few, notably ''
Craspedacusta'' (such as ''
C. sowerbii'') and ''
Limnocnida'', are found in fresh water.
[Didžiulis, Viktoras: ]
Craspedacusta sowerbyi.
' NOBANIS - Invasive Alien Species Fact Sheet. Retrieved 22 September 2014.[Salonen; Högmander; Langenberg; Mölsä; Sarvala; Tarvainen; and Tiirola (2012). ''Limnocnida tanganyicae medusae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa): a semiautonomous microcosm in the food web of Lake Tanganyika.'' Hydrobiologia 690(1): 97-112.]
Taxonomy
This family is named after its
type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...
''
Olindias''
Muller 1861, but with confusion about the correct spelling, with Olindiadae, Olindiidae, Olindiadidae and Olindiasidae all being used. Haeckel established the family in 1879 as Olindiadae, but his intentions as to the stem of the genus and hence the name of the family are unclear. In 2010, Calder determined that Olindiidae was the correct form.
[
]
Genera
The World Register of Marine Species lists these genera:[
*'' Aglauropsis'' Mueller, 1865
*'' Astrohydra'' Hashimoto, 1981
*'' Calpasoma'' Fuhrmann, 1939
*'' Craspedacusta'' Lankester, 1880
*'' Cubaia'' Mayer, 1894
*'' Eperetmus'' Bigelow, 1915
*'' Gonionemus'' A. Agassiz, 1862
*'' Gossea'' L. Agassiz, 1862
*'' Hexaphilia'' Gershwin & Zeidler, 2003
*'' Limnocnida'' Günther, 1893
*'' Maeotias'' Ostroumoff, 1896
*'' Nuarchus'' Bigelow, 1912
*'' Olindias'' Mueller, 1861
*'' Scolionema'' Kishinouye, 1910
*'' Vallentinia'' Browne, 1902
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1657162
Limnomedusae
Cnidarian families
Taxa named by Ernst Haeckel