Leptoclinides durus Kott, 2001

Kott, Patricia, 2007, New and little-known species of Didemnidae (Ascidiacea, Tunicata) from Australia (part 4), Journal of Natural History 41 (17 - 20), pp. 1163-1211 : 1168

Leptoclinides durus Kott, 2001

( Figure 6D )

Leptoclinides durus Kott 2001, p 57 and synonymy; 2004a, p 734.

Distribution

Previously recorded (see Kott 2004a): Western Australia ( Bonaparte Archipelago , Port Hedland ); Queensland ( Capricorn Group to Dingo Reef ); Arafura Sea ; Micronesia. New records: Queensland (Great Barrier Reef: 17.265 ° S, 146.425 ° E, 33 m, QM G308894 ; 15.615 ° S, 145.375 ° E, 21 m, QM G308877 ) .

Description

Thin, hard white encrusting colony with spicules crowded throughout. Both the colony and the zooids are squashed and the thoraces are contracted. However, the posteriorly orientated atrial siphon, about 14 stigmata per row, and a vas deferens coiling about one and a half times around seven or eight testis follicles were detected.

Figures

Figure 6. Scanning electron micrographs. (A) Atriolum irregulare (QM G323245); (B) Leptoclinides albamaculatus (QM G308876); (C) Leptoclinides dubius (QM G308892); (D) Leptoclinides durus (QM G308894); (E) Leptoclinides fluxus (QM G308817); (F) Leptoclinides placidus (QM G308766); (G) Polysyncraton cuculliferum (QM G3088458); (H) Polysyncraton gratum (QM G308891).