Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Quantification of sexual reproduction in the marine benthic hydroid Campanularia everta

  • Published:
Marine Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Campanularia everta is an epiphytic hydroid that may form dense populations on the macroalga Halimeda tuna. The main objects of this study were to quantify sexual reporduction and estimate sexual reproductive output of this hydroid. Sexual reproduction occurred from mid-October to mid-December 1991 along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. During this period, male and female colonies formed gonangia. Four oocytes mature in each female gonangium, and embryonic development starts probably after internal fertilization occurs. Planulae complete their development within a mucus sheath attached to the top of the gonotheca (acrocyst). Eight successive gonangia with a life-span of ≈1 wk each were formed over a 2 mo period. The fertile period was characterized by high initial production of gonangia followed by a progressive decline resulting from a decrease both in the number of fertile colonies and in the gonangia density of fertile colonies. Annual production was estimated at ≈42000 gonangia m-2, representing 83000 oocytes m-2. The high fertilization rates observed (77 to 100%) yielded a minimum production of 64000 planulae m-2. Reproduction in C. everta is characterized by: (1) a high number of larvae produced m-2; (2) formation and gradual release of larvae throughout the sexual reproduction period; (3) direct formation of planulae with no intermediate medusa stage; (4) low dispersive ability of the planula. All these mechanisms are part of a reproductive strategy designed to ensure the permanence of the population in its habitat.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ballesteros E (1991) Seasonality of growth and production of a deep-water population of Halimeda tuna (Clorophyceae, Caulerplles) in the north-western Mediterranean. Botanica mar 34: 291–301

    Google Scholar 

  • Berrill NJ (1949) The polymorphic transformations of Obelia. Q. Jl microsc Sci 90:335–364

    Google Scholar 

  • Berrill NJ (1950) Growth and form in calyptoblastic hydroids. II. Polymorphism within the Campanularidae. J. Morph 87: 1–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Boero F, Bouillon J, Piraino S (1992). On the origins and evolution of hydromedusan life cycles (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa). In: Dallai R (ed) Sex origin and evolution. Mucchi, Modena, pp 59–68 (Selected Symp Monogr Unione zoologica Italiana)

  • Boero F, Fresi E (1986) Zonation and evolution of a rocky bottom hydroid community. Pubbl Staz zool Napoli (I: Mar Ecol) 7: 123–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouillon J (1995) Classe des hydrozoaires. In: Grasse PP (ed) Traite de zoologie. Tome III; fascimile 2. Cnidaires. Masson, Paris, pp 29–416

    Google Scholar 

  • Brazeau DA, Lasker HR (1992) Reproductive success in the Caribbean octocoral Briareum asbestinum. Mar Biol 157–163

  • Buss LW (1979) Habitat selection, directional growth and spatial refuges: why colonial animals have more hiding places. In: Larwood G, Rosen BR (eds) Biology and systematics of colonial organisms. (Spec. vol. 11) Systematic Association, London, pp 459–497

    Google Scholar 

  • Calder DR (1990) Seasonal cycles of activity and inactivity in some hydroids from Virginia and South Carolina, U.S.A. Can J Zool 68: 442–450

    Google Scholar 

  • Calder DR (1991) Shallow-water hydroids of Bermuda. The Thecatae, exclusive of Plumularioidea. Contr R Ont Mus Life Sciences 154: 1–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell RD (1974) Cnidaria. In: Giese AC, Pearse JS (eds) Reproduction of marine invertebrates. Vol. I. Acoelomate and pseudocoelomate metazoans. Academic Press, New York, pp 133–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Coma R (1994) Evaluación del balance energético de dos especies de onidarios bentónicos. Ph. D. thesis. University of Barcelona

  • Coma R, Zabala M, Gili JM (1995) Sexual reproductive effort in the Mediterranean gorgonian Paramuricea clavata. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 117: 185–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornelius PFS (1979) A revision of the species of Sertulariidae (Coelenterata: hydroids) recorded from Britain and nearby seas. Bull Br Mus nat Hist (D: Zool) 34: 243–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornelius PFS (1982) Hydroids and medusae of the family Campanulariidae recorded from the eastern Atlantic, with a world synopsis of genera. Bull Br Mus nat Hist (D: Zool) 42: 37–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornelius PFS (1992) Medusa loss in leptolid Hydrozoa (Cnidaria), hydroid rafting, and abbreviated life-cycles among their remote-island faunae: an interim review. Scientia mar 56: 245–261

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowell S (1957) Differential response of growth zones to nutritive level, age and temperature in the colonial hydroid Campanularia. J exp Zool 134: 63–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Fautin DG, Spalding JG, Chia F-S (1989) Cnidaria. In: Adiyodi KG, Adiyodi RG (eds) Reproductive biology of invertebrates. Vol. 4. Part A. Fertilization, development and parental care. Oxford & IBH Publishing, New Delhi, pp 43–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Fell PE, Lewandrowski K, Lovice M (1979) Post-larval reproduction and reproductive strategy in Haliclona loosanoffi and Halichondria sp. Colloques int Cent natn Rech scient 291: 113–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser GM (1944) Hydroids of the Atlantic coast of North America. Toronto University Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Goette A (1907) Vergleichende Enwicklungsgeschichte der Geschlechtsindividuen der Hydropolypen. Z wiss Zool 87: 1–335

    Google Scholar 

  • Hale LJ (1973) The pattern of growth of Clytia johnstoni. J Embryol exp Morph 29: 283–309

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris VA (1990) Sessile animals of the sea shore. Chapman & Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauenschild C (1954) Genetische und entwicklungsphysiologische Untersuchungen über Intersexualität und Gewebeverträglichkeit bei Hydractinia echinata Flemm. (Hydroz., Bougainvill.). Wilhelm Roux Arch EntwMech Org 147: 1–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Herberts C (1972) Contribution à l'étude biologique de quelques zoanthaires temperés et tropicaux. 1. Reproduction, croissance somatique, bourgeonement. Téthys 4: 711–718

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes RG (1979) Aspects of the biology and life-history of Nemertesia antennina (L.) (Hydrozoa: Plumulariidae). J mar biol Ass UK 57: 641–657

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes RG (1987) The loss of hydranths of Laomedea flexuosa Alder and other hydroids, with reference to hydroid senescence. In: Bouillon J, Boero F, Cicogna F, Cornelius PFS (eds) Modern trends in systematics, ecology and evolution of hydroids and hydromedusae. Oxford University Press, London, pp 171–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes RN (1989) A functional biology of clonal animals. Chapman & Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes RN, Cancino JM (1985) An ecological overview of cloning in Metazoa. In: Jackson JBC, Buss LW, Cook RE (eds) Population biology and evolution of clonal organisms. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 153–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyman LH (1940) The invertebrates: Protozoa through Ctenophora. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson JBC (1986) Modes of dispersal of clonal benthic invertebrates: consequences for species' distributions and genetic structure of local populations. Bull mar Sci 39: 588–606

    Google Scholar 

  • Kühn A (1910) Die Entwicklung der Geschlechtsindividuen der Hydromedusen. Zool Jb (Anat Ont Tiere) 30: 63–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Llobet I, Coma R, Zabala M, Gili J-M, Hughes RG (1991a) The population dynamics of Orthopyxis crenata (Hartlaub, 1901) (Hydrozoa, Cnidaria), an epiphyte of Halimeda tuna in the northwestern Mediterranean. J exp mar Biol Ecol 150: 283–292

    Google Scholar 

  • Llobet I, Gili J-M, Hughes RG (1991b) Horizontal, vertical and seasonal distributions of epiphytic hydrozoa on the alga Halimeda tuna in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Mar Biol 110: 151–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin VJ, Thomas MB (1983) Establishment and maintenance of morphological polarity in epithelial planulae. Trans Am microsc Soc 102: 18–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Millard NAH (1975) Monograph on the Hydroida of southern Africa. Ann S Afr Mus 68: 1–513

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller RL (1973) The role of the gonomedusa and gonangium in the sexual reproduction (fertilization) of the Hydrozoa. Publs Seto mar biol Lab 20: 367–400

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller RL (1979) Sperm chemotaxis in the Hydromedusae. I. Species-specificity and sperm behavior. Mar Biol 53: 99–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller RL (1980) Species-specificity of sperm chemotaxis in the hydromedusae. In: Tardent P, Tardent R (eds) Developmental and cellular biology of coelenterates. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, pp 89–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Naumov DV (1960) Hydroids and hydromedusae of the U.S.S.R. Fauna SSSR 70: 1–626 [In Russ] [English transl., Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Catalogue No. 5108, 1969]

    Google Scholar 

  • Nishihira M (1967) Observations of the algal selection by larvae of Sertularella miurensis in nature. Bull mar biol Stn Asamushi 13: 35–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Nishihira M (1968) Experiments on the algal selection by the larvae of Coryne uchidai Stechow (Hydrozoa). Bull mar biol Stn Asamushi 13: 83–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Nutting C (1915) American hydroids. Part. III. The Campanularidae and the Bougainvillidae. Spec Bull US natn Mus 4: 1–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Paffenhöfer GA (1968) Nahrungsaufnahme, Stoffumsatz und Energiehaushalt des marinen Hydroidpolypen Clava multicornis. Helgoländer wiss Meeresunters 18: 1–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Pascual J, Flos J (1984) Meteorologia i oceanografia. Arx Secc Ciènc Inst Estud catalans 73: 75–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Teissier G (1926) Notes critiques sur la morphologie des gonophores chez les hydraires. I. Caractères distinctif des hétéromédusoides et des cryptomédusoides. Archs Zool exp gén (Suppl Notes Rev) 65: 75–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Teissier G (1950) Notes sur quelques hydrozoaires de Roscoff. Archs Zool exp gén (Suppl Notes Rev) 87: 1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Theodor J (1967) Contribution à l'étude des gorgones (VII). Ecologie et comportement de la planula. Vie Milieu 18: 291–301

    Google Scholar 

  • Weismann A (1883) Die Entstehung der Sexualzellen bei den Hydromedusen. Verlag August Fischer, Jena

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner B (1963) Effect of some environmental factors on differentiation and determination in marine Hydrozoa, with a note on their evolutionary significance. Ann NY Acad Sci 105: 461–488

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams GB (1976) Aggregations during settlement as a factor in the establishment of coelenterate colonies. Ophelia 15: 57–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams GC (1966) Natural selection, the costs of reproduction and refinement of Lack's principle. Am Nat 100: 687–690

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoshida M (1954) Spawning habit of Hydractinia epiconcha, a hydroid. J Fac Sci Tokyo Univ (Sect 4: Zool) 7: 67–78

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC), Passeig Joan de Borbó s/b, E-08039, Barcelona, Spain

    R. Coma & J.-M. Gili

  2. Department d'ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Avenida Diagonal 645, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain

    R. Coma, I. Llobet & M. Zabala

Authors
  1. R. Coma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. I. Llobet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J.-M. Gili
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Zabala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Communicated by A. Rodriguez, Puerto Real

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Coma, R., Llobet, I., Gili, JM. et al. Quantification of sexual reproduction in the marine benthic hydroid Campanularia everta . Marine Biology 125, 365–373 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00346317

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00346317

Keywords

Search

Navigation