Polycarpa stirpes, KOTT, 1985

Monniot, Claude, 2002, Stolidobranch ascidians from the tropical western Indian Ocean, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 135 (1), pp. 65-120 : 89-91

POLYCARPA STIRPES KOTT, 1985 ( Fig. 20 )

Polycarpa stirpes Kott, 1985: 202 , fig. 95 – Australia; Monniot C., 1987: 278, fig. 1C,D – New Caledonia; Monniot F. & Monniot C., 2001: 333, figs 97,129B – Philippines.

Material

Mozambique: Ibo Island, Matemo cliff, 5–10 m, coll. C. Monniot, 1995.

Description

In life the tunic is brown and the siphons black, interiorly spotted with white, but these colours disappear in formalin. After fixation the rather thick tunic is soft, greyish, and translucent internally. The body wall is thin, without granules, light brown, darker on the siphons. The musculature is weak and the gonads can be seen in an unopened body.

Thirty long and stout oral tentacles regularly alternate in three orders. The largest are as long as the siphon. They are planted on a crest. The prepharyngeal band is a single rod-like ridge that curves dorsally in a V that is prolonged by a groove ( Fig. 20C ). The dorsal tubercle is flat ( Fig. 20C ).

The height of the dorsal lamina progressively increases posteriorly. The branchial sac remains light brown when fixed in formalin. It has four well-formed folds on each side, but they do not cover each other. The first longitudinal vessel on the right side clearly diverges from the dorsal lamina posteriorly.

Three to four vessels between the dorsal lamina and the first fold on the right side converge to form a kind of low fold in the posterior part of the body, and in this specimen the formula then becomes:

RE 2 (8) 3 (9) 3 (10) 3 (9) 1 (3) DL 2 (8) 3 (12) 3 (11)

Figures

Figure 20. Polycarpa stirpes: A, the largest specimen ventrally opened. B, small specimen ventrally opened. C, detail of the neural area. D, polycarp. Scale bars: A,B = 1 cm, C = 1mm, D = 5 mm.