Polycitor circes Michaelsen, 1930

KOTT, PATRICIA, 2003, New syntheses and new species in the Australian Ascidiacea, Journal of Natural History 37 (13), pp. 1611-1653 : 1623

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930110104258
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5260183
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8B5387D0-2560-9A19-1214-E424FDD8FAA9
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Polycitor circes Michaelsen, 1930
status

Treatment

Polycitor circes Michaelsen, 1930 View in CoL

Polycitor circes Michaelsen, 1930: 495 View in CoL ; Kott, 1990a: 169 and synonymy.

Distribution. New records: Western Australia (WAM, Kimberley, Cone Bay). The new record is within the previously known range. See Kott (1990a).

Description. This new material extends the known range of morphological variation of both colony and zooids in this species. Colonies are terminal rounded heads on slightly longer, thick, branched stalks (two or three branches) up to 6 cm high. Black pigment is in the surface of the soft, translucent gelatinous test. About 14 longitudinal muscles are on each side of the thorax, 12 rows of about 25 stigmata were detected in the branchial sac, and although the gastric glandular epithelium appears to be in longitudinal tracts, the stomach folds are obscure in some places, tending to flatten out posteriorly. The abdomen in contracted zooids is only about three times the length of the thorax, although when relaxed it is many times longer.

The large larvae (trunk 3.0 mm long) begin their development at the top of the oesophageal neck rather than in the thorax. The three adhesive organs are triradially arranged at the anterior end of the trunk.

Remarks. The species is readily distinguished from all except P. annulus Kott, 1990a by the dark pigment in the test, long zooids and large larvae with triradially arranged adhesive organs. Although the number of rows of stigmata in these specimens approaches the number in P. annulus , the colony shape and the size of the larvae are different.