Didemnum ahu Monniot & Monniot, 1987

Monniot, Françoise, 2009, Some ascidians from Indonesian marine lakes (Raja Ampat Islands, West Papua), Zootaxa 2106, pp. 13-40 : 15-16

Didemnum ahu Monniot & Monniot, 1987

( Figures 1A , 2 )

Didemnum ahu Monniot C. & Monniot F., 1987: 25 , fig. 6 A,B,C, pl. 1E; Monniot F. & Monniot C., 2008: 803 and synonymy.

Material. Indonesia. West Papua, Gam Island, Danau Hidden Gam marine lake, 00°26.959’S – 130°30.071’E, 0m, 10/XII/2007, coll. L.J. Bell and L.E. Martin, DHG 0 50 ( MNHN A2 DID C 588); West Papua,Gam Island, Danau Nine Gam marine lake, 00°26.970’S – 130°29.149’E, 0.5m, 03/XII/2007, coll. L.J.

Bell and L.E. Martin, DNG 0 54 ( MNHN A2 DID C 586).

The very thin colonies ( Fig. 1A ) are white with small zooids and small larvae of 0.3mm for the trunk. The spicules are irregular in size and shape, of 30µm for the largest; the fibrous structure of the rays obviously appears. The species was also previously recorded from a marine lake in Palau ( Monniot & Monniot 2008).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Didemnum ahu larva stained with hemalum. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.

FIGURE 1. A: Didemnum ahu. B, Didemnum rubeum.