Diplosoma simile (Sluiter, 1909)

Su, Shih-Wei, Hirose, Euichi, Chen, Serina Lee Siew & Mok, Michael Hin-Kiu, 2013, Photosymbiotic ascidians in Singapore: turbid waters may reduce living space, ZooKeys 305, pp. 55-65 : 57

Diplosoma simile (Sluiter, 1909)

Diplosoma midori (Tokioka, 1954)

Leptoclinum midori Tokioka, 1954

Leptoclinum simile Sluiter, 1909

Specimens examined.

NMNS-7027-001, NMNS-7027-002, ZRC-TUN-0001 and ZRC-TUN-0015 (Pulau Semakau, subtidal at depth 0.5 m), ZRC-TUN-0011 (St. John’s Island, subtidal at depth 0.5 m), ZRC-TUN-0009 (Sentosa, subtidal at depth 0.5 m)

Colonies are irregularly shaped sheets about 2 mm thick without spicules (Fig. 2D). They are entirely green due to the Prochloron cells in the common cloacal cavities. The thorax has four stigmatal rows: there are six stigmata in the first (top), second, and third row and five stigmata in the fourth row (bottom). The retractor muscle emerges from the bottom of the thorax (Fig. 2E). Testis and/or egg are found in some zooids, and vas deferens is uncoiled. Kott (1982) reported this species from Singapore. This is one of the most common species in the didemnid- Prochloron obligate symbioses in the tropical Pacific, and it has also been recently found in Caribbean Panama ( Hirose et al. 2012).