Rhopalaea crassa ( Herdman, 1880 )

Lambert, Gretchen, Lee, Serina Siew-Chen & Teo, Serena Lay-Ming, 2021, Ascidians collected during the 2013 Singapore Strait International Marine Biodiversity Workshop, Zootaxa 4933 (1), pp. 1-38 : 3

Rhopalaea crassa ( Herdman, 1880)

Figure 1B

#0150, one; #1191B, thorax only; #1226; #3786, three; #4617, one, 5.3 cm in length.

This species is always solitary, the thorax yellow, with the abdomen embedded in crevices or coral rubble and with only the thorax protruding in its thick opaque bright yellow tunic. Thus collected specimens are often broken off at the narrow neck between thorax and abdomen and only the thorax is collected.

Widely distributed in the tropical west Pacific including Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Japan, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Guam.

Detailed descriptions with illustrations: Monniot C. (1997b), Monniot F. & Monniot C. (2001), Lee et al. (2013). Other references: Van Name (1918), Millar (1975), Kott & Goodbody (1982), Kott (1990, part; 1992), Nishikawa (1991), Lambert (2003), Lee et al. (2016).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A: Clavelina moluccensis; B: Rhopalaea crassa 5.3 cm in length; C–G, Rhopalaea macrothorax. C: entire zooid, 6.5 cm in length; D: anterior thorax showing muscle pattern and siphons; E: abdomen with stomach at the upper right, large gonad on the left in the intestinal loop; F: clutch of 23 immature amphipods (Leucothoe sp.) with adult in branchial sac; G: adult amphipod, closeup, 5.5 mm in length. Scale bars: A, 1.4 mm; E, 2 mm.