Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859

Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859 View in CoL

Bimeria vestita Wright, 1859: 109 View in CoL , pl. 8 fig. 4.— Calder, 1988: 21–23, figs 17–18.— Ramil & Vervoort, 1992a: 14–15.— Marques et al., 2000: 322–324, figs 1–3.— Vervoort, 2006: 196–197, fig. 5 no. 2.— Schuchert, 2007: 247–250, fig. 20.— Schuchert, 2012: 216–217, fig. 205.

Material examined. BISSAU-0810, stn BS191, 10º18'25"– 10º19'20"N, 16º08'47"– 16º08'47"W, 24–25 m, 3-XI-2008: 253 colonies (123 with sporosarcs), of which 77 growing on Idiellana pristis , 27 on Diphasia digitalis , 15 on unidentified hydroids, three on Tridentata loculosa , two on Tridentata turbinata , two on Eudendrium capillare , one on Halecium marocanum , one on Plumularia setacea , one on Amphisbetia distans , one on Thyroscyphus marginatus , 75 on unidentified bryozoans, one on a polychaete tube.

BISSAU-0810, stn BS192, 10º19'30"– 10º20'15"N, 16º10'27"– 16º10'59"W, 24 m, 3-XI-2008: 68 colonies (two with sporosacs), 30–47 mm high, of which 19 growing on Idiellana pristis , three on Diphasia digitalis , two on Thyroscyphus marginatus , two on Tridentata loculosa , one on Tridentata marginata , 20 on bryozoans, two on crustaceans, one on a polychaete tube.

BISSAU-0810, stn BS193, 10º21'13"– 10º21'51"N, 16º10'17"– 16º10'56"W, 20–21 m, 3-XI-2008: five colonies (four with sporosacs), up to 31 mm high, of which four growing on bryozoans.

CCLME 2012-404 , stn SL−04, 10º48’29’’N, 16º34’57’’W, 32 m, 18-VI-2012: one colony growing on Eudendrium sp. , without sporosacs GoogleMaps .

Remarks. Our material is consistent with that described by Gil et al. (2020), and requires no further notes. It represents also the first record of B. vestita for Guinea-Bissau.

Biology. This species has been found growing on other hydroids and invertebrates ( Gil et al. 2020). Specimens with gonophores were found in early summer, and from August to February in the northern hemisphere, while in the southern hemisphere they occurred from spring to autumn ( Gil et al. 2020).

Colonies studied by us were found growing on hydroids, bryozoans, worm tubes and crustaceans. Colonies with sporosacs were found in November.

Distribution. Bimeria vestita is considered as a species with a circumglobal distribution ( Vervoort 2006). In West Africa, it occurrence was thoroughly documented by Gil et al. (2020). Its bathymetric distribution ranges from 0 ( Schuchert 2012) to 574 m ( Gil et al. 2020).

Our material was collected between 20–32 m.

Genus Garveia Wright, 1859