Some new data on tropical western Pacific Ascidians
Author
Monniot, Françoise
text
Zootaxa
2010
2010-08-09
2561
1
1
29
https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.2561.1.1
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.2561.1.1
1175-5326
5304193
Didemnum rodriguesi
Rocha & Monniot, 1993
(
Figures 7C
,
8B
,
10
)
Didemnum rodriguesi
Rocha & Monniot, 1993: 261
. Monniot F. & Monniot C. 2001: 271 and synonymy.
Material.
Coll. N.J. Pilcher
et al,
Viet Nam
,
Con Son Isl.
, Con Dao,
08°45.48’N
–
106°39.96’E
,
15–20m
,
27/ VII/2008
, 0PHG 1679-J (A2
DID
C 605
)
.
The colonies are pink or peach coloured (
Fig.7C
) in crusts. In life, the common cloacal openings are at the top of low elevations. The colony surface is smooth and does not show the spotty design described in previous collections. Orange inclusions are in the basal layer of the colonies. The zooids (
Fig. 10
) are small with 6 pointed oral lobes, a wide atrial opening without languet, a single testis vesicle circled by 7 turns of the sperm duct. The larval trunk measures
0.5mm
, the tail is wound in ¾ of a turn (
Fig. 10C
). The 3 adhesive papillae are linked with a variable number of vesicles on each side: for example 6 to 8 on a side but 5 to 6 on the other side. The larvae are not gemmiparous. The stellate spicules (
Fig. 8B
) are dense with an average size of 30µm, but some of them reach 40µm.
The geographic distribution is large covering warm waters of all oceans.