Perophora multiclathrata (Sluiter, 1904)

KOTT, PATRICIA, 2003, New syntheses and new species in the Australian Ascidiacea, Journal of Natural History 37 (13), pp. 1611-1653 : 1635

Perophora multiclathrata (Sluiter, 1904)

Ecteinascidia multiclathrata Sluiter, 1904: 12 .

Perophora multiclathrata: Kott, 1990a: 106 and synonymy; Goodbody, 1994: 181; Monniot, 1997b: 562.

Distribution. New records: South Australia (Kangaroo I., QAM E2862); New South Wales (Ulladulla, SAM E2890). The new records are from more southern locations on the eastern Australian coast than previously were known for this pantropical species.

Description. Both newly recorded colonies are a tangled mass of creeping stolons with evenly spaced zooids attached by short stalks about the same length as the zooid itself. Zooids become progressively smaller toward the growing tip of the stolon. The inconspicuous five rows of stigmata have about 16 internal longitudinal vessels crossing them. Some of the stigmata in the first and second rows are long, extending between the two rows without being divided horizontally. An undivided testis is in the horizontal gut loop.

Remarks. These small zooids and tangled colonies resemble those of Perophora fascia Monniot, 1991, which differ in the absence of transverse muscles between apertures. Some stigmata extend between the first and second rows in both P. fascia and the present species. These species are either closely related, or are both simplified with convergent characters.