Polycarpa plantei, Monniot, 2002

Monniot, Claude, 2002, Stolidobranch ascidians from the tropical western Indian Ocean, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 135 (1), pp. 65-120 : 87

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00017.x
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/436F3F3C-FFC6-FFB8-FCB7-FD68FAC81D3C
treatment provided by	Carolina
scientific name	Polycarpa plantei
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

POLYCARPA PLANTEI View in CoL SP.NOV. ( Figs 14B View Figure 14 , 18 View Figure 18 )

Material

Holotype: MNHN S1 About MNHN POL B 439, Madagascar: Nosy- Be, coll. R. Plante , 1968.

Other material examined: Madagascar, Nosy-Be, coll. R. Plante, 1966 and 1968; Seychelles: Mahé, anse à la Mouche, coll. Central Africa Museum.

Description

This species has a dark, soft tunic ( Fig. 14B View Figure 14 ). Bodies 1–3 cm in diameter were collected over several years in the same place at Nosy-Be by R. Plante. Two larger specimens, 5 cm in diameter, come from the Seychelles, and one of them has a pale colour.

The corrugated anterior part of the tunic lacks epibionts or sediment, but the ventral part is more or less covered with varied debris. The inconspicuous siphons are separated by half the body width. Opposite to the siphons the soft and thin tunic extends thick ramifications and filaments encrusted with sediment, or it makes a short, thick peduncle ( Fig. 14B View Figure 14 ). The body wall is slightly transparent and reveals the gonads and gut ( Fig. 18A View Figure 18 ). The musculature is weak. In Madagascar specimens preserved in formalin, each siphon has a large velum with a black rim. The roughly 40 oral tentacles are thin and long, distributed in two rather similar orders, separated by much smaller tentacles.

The dorsal V of the prepharyngeal band is sharp. The dorsal tubercle does not protrude and opens in a S-shaped slit. The smooth-edged dorsal lamina increases in height toward the oesophagus. The endostyle is long, without a postendostylar appendix. The four branchial folds on each side are high, but do not cover each other.

In a specimen 2 cm across the formula is: