Life Cycle and Ecology of the Minute Hydrozoon Microhydrula

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Abstract
Microhydrula sp. was discovered in inverted plastic petri dishes in a marine aquarium stocked with costal water from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Beaufort, North Carolina, Alligator Harbor and Tampa, Florida, and Savannah and Sapelo Island, Georgia, [USA]. A nearly identical strain was found in an aquarium stocked from Chincoteague Bay, Maryland. The aufwuchs community of these aquaria from different locations had many genera and species in common. Algae and protozoa formed associations with the Microhydrula polyps, which fed on harpacticoid copepod nauplii and copepoids. The Maryland animals also switched to feeding on nematodes when they were abundant. The polyps and the asexually derived migrating frustules were studied under brightfield and phase contrast microscopy. The organism lacks cilia and tentacles and possesses heterotrichous microbasic eurytele nematocysts. No medussa were noted. The slow-moving frustules were seen ocasionally attached to chaetae of gravid female copepods, providing dispersal. Both strains compare closely in morphology, size and behavior to the original description of M. pontica by Valkanov.

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