Ascidian fauna (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) of subantarctic and temperate regions of Chile
Author
Turon, Xavier
Author
Cañete, Juan I.
Author
Sellanes, Javier
Author
Rocha, Rosana M.
Author
López-Legentil, Susanna
text
Zootaxa
2016
4093
2
151
180
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4093.2.1
93e50923-ac4f-4bc5-93cc-4b1e825a8c1d
1175-5326
267667
ECC66298-6885-47B3-B797-8D30AA05927F
Botryllus schlosseri
(Pallas, 1766)
References and synonymy:
Botryllus schlosseri
(Van Name 1945)
p. 220; (Berrill 1950) p. 216.
Localities: 2N,
8N.
Remarks.
the golden star tunicate is a model species for evo-devo studies and is distributed worldwide (Locke 2009). It has a marked polymorphism in chromatic patterns and colony shapes, and the long list of synonymies reported (e.g., Van Name 1945, Berrill 1950, Kott 1985) bears testimony of the convoluted taxonomical history of
B. schlosseri
.
As
in other widely distributed and polymorphic species, it has been recently shown that the taxon
B. schlosseri
is a complex of genetically differentiated species (Bock
et al.
2012). The two mtDNA sequences obtained in this study correspond to Clade A in Bock
et al.
(2012), the most widespread and common but, in turn, subject to ongoing speciation processes (Griggio
et al.
2014).
B. schlosseri
is abundant in artificial structures in the northern study zone. It has been reported in
Chile
by Van Name (1954) and Ben-Shlomo et al (2010).