Samuraia tabularasa gen. nov., sp. nov. (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Hydrocorynidae), an intertidal hydroid from the Gulf of California, Mexico

Samuraia tabularasa, the samurai hydroid, a previously unreported genus and species of athecate hydrozoan, family Hydrocorynidae, is described, based upon field and laboratory observations. Colonies live attached to rocky substrates in the middle of the intertidal zone in the northern and central Gulf of California, Mexico. The principal characters that allow this species to be referred to a new genus are associated with its mode of sexual reproduction by eumedusoids that can remain attached to the colony, or be released as ephemeral, rudimentary structures. This is in contrast to the feeding, free medusae produced by the two species of the other genus, Hydrocoryne, in the family Hydrocorynidae.