Polycarpa cartilaginea (Sluiter, 1898)

Monniot, Françoise, 2018, Ascidians collected during the Madibenthos expedition in Martinique: 2. Stolidobranchia, Styelidae, Zootaxa 4410 (2), pp. 291-318 : 304

Polycarpa cartilaginea (Sluiter, 1898)

Fig. 12

Styela cartilaginea Sluiter, 1898 , Santa Marta, Colombia.

Polycarpa cartilaginea: Van der Sloot, 1969 : Curaçao and synonymy. Monniot C. 1983: Guadeloupe; Rocha, Zanata & Moreno 2012, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Belize, Panama, Columbia, Curaçao.

Stations: AM O5; AM 34; AD 208; AD 285; AR 135. (MNHN S1 POL.B 582)

The ascidians were fixed by their ventral or posterior side. The tunic has irregular superficial swellings and occasionally wears epibionts and sediment. The oral siphon is apical and the atrial at 1/3 of the body length; they are not protruding. In life a red line at the rim of the siphons disappears in formalin. The body wall is thin with a network of thin muscular fibres. The tentacles are numerous in 3 orders of size. The dorsal tubercle is variable in shape either S or U opening anteriorly. There are 4 branchial folds on each side ( Fig.12 A’, 12B’) with the longitudinal vessels more spaced on their ventral side. The formula of a specimen 3cm large is:

R E- 2 (8) 3 (12) 3 (12) 3 (12) 2 - DL - 2 (7) 2 (10) 2 (12) 2 (10) 2- E L

The stomach is very long with well marked folds and without caecum ( Fig.12A, B ). The narrow primary intestinal loop contains a large foliated endocarp ( Fig.12A,B ), but no other endocarps exist on the internal side of the body wall. The anus has a plain or undulated rim. The gut is loosely attached to the body wall by strips of tissue. The polycarps are very numerous ( Fig. 12A,B ), 80 of them on the right side and 40 on the left were counted in a specimen 3cm in size. In shape of ampullae they are loosely attached to the body wall at proximal end. There is a ring of thin threads along the edge of the atrial velum.

All characters correspond to the detailed description given by Van der Sloot (1969) for P. cartilaginea whose distribution seems limited to the southern part of the Mexico Gulf from Panama ( Collin et al 2005 without description), Colombia (type locality), Curaçao ( Goodbody 1984) and Guadeloupe ( Monniot C. 1983).

Figures

FIGURE12. Polycarpacartilagineastained.A,body ventrallyopened (stAR 135) and A’, itsbranchial sac; B,bodyventrally opened (st AM 34) and B’ its branchial sac.Scale bars = 5mm.