GONIONEMUS SUVAENSIS : STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS, DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES AND ECOLOGY

Abstract

The species Gonionemus suvaensis, established by AGASSIZ and MAYER (1899) on specimens collected in Fiji Islands, has been then separated from this genus and called Scolionema by KISHINOUYE (1910), but KRAMP (1965) reports it again under the genus Gonionemus because the distinct characters for Scolionema are not significant enough to regard the genus as a separate one, though, in 1968, the same species is treated under the generic name Scolionema when this author describes the Indo-Pacific specimens. Many works about Gonionemus suvaensis are either diagnosis with data on localities and seasonal occurrences or papers mentioning distributions only, while detailed morphological descriptions have been missing. The present paper is a monograph on the Mediterranean specimens, giving their structural characters, developmental stages and ecology.