The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz
Author
Lambert, Gretchen
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-08-20
4657
3
401
436
journal article
25983
10.11646/zootaxa.4657.3.1
3414318d-7570-49ac-9013-be4e1f1e6347
1175-5326
3371886
86DD93B2-E8F4-4174-B105-9436357CB4B6
Corella inflata
(Huntsman, 1912)
Figure 10F
IHAK 18 BHAK 0640, 0641, 0649, 0650, 0654 UF 2491, 2492, 2499, 2500, 2503. Under lab dock, common.
IHAK 40 Pruth Dock two specimens with several
Halocynthia igaboja
Oka, 1906
.
XHAK 1 Maey Channel ARMS
7.3 m
. On plates with
C. willmeriana
Herdman, 1898
and
Chelyosoma productum
.
XHAK 9 Kelpie Point ARMS
5 m
.
Several large specimens on plates. With
C. willmeriana
, small
Chelyosoma productum
, one
Ascidia columbiana
and small flat colonies of
Distaplia occidentalis
.
This common NE Pacific native species is often an abundant settler on newly cleared or otherwise unfouled surfaces and thus may be incredibly numerous on new marina floating docks or on long sabellid polychaete tubes. The intestine, rectum and gonoducts are on the right side, are short (less than half the body length), and end at the base of a very expanded atrial chamber that serves as a brood pouch. Oocytes are spawned into this large atrial cavity where they are fertilized and float until the tadpoles hatch and swim down and out of the atrial siphon. After settlement, the juveniles always develop with an alignment that assures that the atrial chamber will be uppermost, assuring that the brooded embryos will be retained until hatching. The species breeds year around in
Washington
; summer populations have a life span of only about five months, while winter populations live for about eight months (
Lambert 1968
, as
C. willmeriana
).
Van Name (1945)
incorrectly synonymized
C. inflata
under
C. willmeriana
; see
Lambert
et al
. (1981)
for detailed morphology and distinction from
Corella willmeriana
. Distribution:
Alaska
to
Oregon
(
Lambert & Sanamyan 2001
;
Lamb & Hanby 2005
; unpublished observations for recent
Oregon
records).