Synoicum macroglossum (Hartmeyer, 1919)

KOTT, PATRICIA, 2003, New syntheses and new species in the Australian Ascidiacea, Journal of Natural History 37 (13), pp. 1611-1653 : 1630-1631

Synoicum macroglossum (Hartmeyer, 1919)

Macroclinum macroglossum Hartmeyer, 1919: 126 .

Synoicum macroglossum: Kott, 1992a: 494 .

Distribution. New records: Queensland (Mooloolaba, QM G308502; Swain Reefs,

QM G305755).

Description. Both newly recorded colonies are gelatinous but firm on the surface. One is a vertical, upright cone with sand around the sides and in the base (QM G308502) and rounded, elongate or irregular elevations on the surface. The other is a 6 cm slab about 1.5 cm thick with sand crowded in the basal half and small circular clumps of sand scattered sparsely in the surface of rounded surface elevations. Dark granular vesicles are in the sand-free upper half of each colony. Zooids, arranged along each side of short radial canals roofed over by a thin layer of surface test, open from the depressions in the surface which, in the Swain Reefs colony, are narrow crevices. Zooids are long and narrow with a long branchial siphon, a large atrial lip (with a straight fringed tip) arising from the body wall in front of the short atrial siphon which has small pointed papillae around the aperture. A small papilla projects from the body wall behind the atrial aperture. The small stomach has a smooth wall, the testis follicles are in a double row in the posterior abdomen.

Remarks. Vertical colonies (QM GH5421, QM G308502), both from mainland locations on the Queensland coast, may be a different species from the cushion or slab-like colonies, although the zooids from each are identical.