Styela plicata (Lesueur, 1823)

Kott, Patricia, 2009, Taxonomic revision of Ascidiacea (Tunicata) from the upper continental slope off north-western Australia, Journal of Natural History 43 (31 - 32), pp. 1947-1986 : 1974-1975

Styela plicata (Lesueur, 1823)

Ascidia plicata Lesueur, 1823, p. 5 .

Styela plicata: Kott 1985, p. 116 and synonymy; 2008b, p. 1195.

Distribution

Previously recorded ( Kott 2008b): circum Australia (from Barrow Is., Cockburn Sound, Great Australian Bight, St. Vincent Gulf, Port Phillip Bay , Port Hadley , Botany Bay , Port Stephens , Moreton Bay , Hervey Bay ); Hong Kong; Japan; west Indian Ocean and tropical to warm temperate waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean; New record: western Australia CSIRO 05 /07 (Station 097-028, Mermaid, 17.77 S 120.72 E, 97 m, Sled tow, 20.6.07) .

It is not recorded from the tropical western Pacific or from the eastern Pacific.

Description

The species is readily identified by its deeply curved gut loop, long stomach with fine longitudinal pleats, long anal lobes, and leaf-like endocarps on and in the gut loop. Long branched male follicles are around the long tubular ovarian tubes and the posterior one of the two gonads on the left side of the body is curved down into the secondary gut loop. The newly reported specimen is contracted.

Remarks

The pattern of its geographic range suggests that it has been introduced around the world ( Kott 2008b), and recent records from Barrow Is. (93 m) and the present new

record from 97 m could be of introduced specimens. It is found generally in protected and often brackish and polluted waters ( Kott 1985).