HYDRACTINIA

genus of marine hydrozoan polyps (phylum Cnidaria), a group of invertebrate animals with a thin tubelike body that attaches to a surface. Species of the Hydractinia are colonial and usually live on snail shells inhabitated by hermit crabs. The basal stolon (stemlike structure) of a Hydractinia colony is comprised of numerous perisarc-covered tubes coalesced into an encrusting layer. Over this layer is spread a sheet of living tissue supporting the individual polyps, which include feeding polyps (gastrozooids), reproductive polyps (gonozooids), and long, mouthless polyps probably protective in function (tentaculozooids). Under some conditions (e.g., when freshwater is squirted over a colony), the tentaculozooids beat in unison, a degree of behavioural coordination unusual among hydrozoans. There is no medusa stage; the colony produces uniformly ciliated, or planula (q.v.), larvae directly. Hydractinia species occur nearly worldwide in shallow waters. Several related genera also encrust gastropod shells containing hermit crabs, and fossil representatives tentatively dating back to the Jurassic Period (between 144 and 208 million years old) have been identified.