Clavelina moluccensis ( Sluiter, 1904 )

Lambert, Gretchen, Lee, Serina Siew-Chen & Teo, Serena Lay-Ming, 2021, Ascidians collected during the 2013 Singapore Strait International Marine Biodiversity Workshop, Zootaxa 4933 (1), pp. 1-38 : 2-3

Clavelina moluccensis ( Sluiter, 1904)

Figure 1A

#1175, only two zooids, pale blue in formalin, not fully mature, smaller one damaged. Larger one 20 mm in length with the characteristic muscle pattern (anastomosing and branching horizontal/diagonal), and also three dark reddish purple spots (still visible in formalin) between the siphons.

Widely distributed in the tropical West Pacific, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Mozambique, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Guam.

Detailed descriptions and figures: Kott (1990), Monniot C. (1997a), Monniot F. & Monniot C. (2001). Other references: Van Name (1918), Tokioka (1970), Millar (1975), Lambert (2003), Lee et al. (2016).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A: Clavelina moluccensis; B: Rhopalaea crassa 5.3 cm in length; C–G, Rhopalaea macrothorax. C: entire zooid, 6.5 cm in length; D: anterior thorax showing muscle pattern and siphons; E: abdomen with stomach at the upper right, large gonad on the left in the intestinal loop; F: clutch of 23 immature amphipods (Leucothoe sp.) with adult in branchial sac; G: adult amphipod, closeup, 5.5 mm in length. Scale bars: A, 1.4 mm; E, 2 mm.