Champia parvula (C.Agardh) Harvey 1853

Publication Details
Champia parvula (C.Agardh) Harvey 1853: 76

Published in: Harvey, W.H. (1853). Nereis boreali-americana; or, contributions towards a history of the marine algae of the atlantic and pacific coasts of North America. Part II. Rhodospermeae. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 5(5): [i-ii], [1]-258, pls XIII-XXXVI.

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Type Species
The type species (holotype) of the genus Champia is Champia lumbricalis (Linnaeus) Desvaux.

Status of Name
This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Basionym
Chondria parvula C.Agardh

Type Information
Type locality: Ad Gades [Cadiz, Spain]; (Agardh 1824: 207) Lectotype: Herb. Alg. Agardh, LD; 26022 (Irvine & Guiry 1983: 78)

Origin of Species Name
Adjective A (Latin), very small (Stearn 1983).

General Environment
This is a marine species.

Description
Soft, gelatinous, pinkish red, Much-branched fronds, densely matted, with blunt apices, to 100 mm high. Axes segmented, with nodal diaphragms, segments about as broad as long, filled with a watery mucilage.

Habitat
Epiphytic on smaller algae in lower intertidal pools and subtidal, south-west England and Ireland, Channel Islands, locally common.

Created: 31 March 1996 by M.D. Guiry.

Last updated: 13 August 2021

Verification of Data
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Taxonomic note
According to Lozada-Troche & Ballantine (2010: 139), morphological characters of C. parvula overlap sufficiently among eastern and western Atlantic specimens that they cannot be clearly distinguished. Therefore, they retained the name C. parvula in the western Atlantic, including Caribbean specimens but noted that such assignment was tentative until material from the type locality could be sequenced and compared with western Atlantic populations. Griffith et al. (2017: 83), later found that southern New England, USA, populations were genetically distinct from C. parvula and named their entity C. farlowii M.K. Griffith, C.W. Schneider et C.E. Lane. They did not find any genetic C. parvula in their limited samples from the south of New England and New York, and suggested that only greater sampling of Champia in the Americas would answer the question as to whether C. parvula was present in the western Atlantic. - (05 October 2010) - G.M. Guiry

Distributional note
Widely reported from most temperate waters, but many records need verification (Womersley 1996: 129). Widespread in most warm seas (Lipkin & Silva 2002). - (23 March 2009) - G.M. Guiry

Habitat note
Epilithic or epiphytic on Amphibolis (Womersley 1996: 129). - (04 June 2010) - G.M. Guiry

Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=134

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 13 August 2021. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 22 January 2025

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