Aplidium

Sanamyan, Karen & Gleason, Daniel F., 2009, Ascidians of the genus Aplidium collected on shallow hard-bottom reefs of coastal Georgia (Atlantic coast of N America, U. S. A.), Zootaxa 2066, pp. 50-58 : 54

Aplidium sp.

( Figure 4 C)

? Aplidium lobatum: Van Name, 1945: 28 (synonymy). Monniot and Monniot, 1984: 571.

Material examined: collected in 2004, 31°36.056' N, 80°47.431' W, specimen #246

Description. The one colony examined is in rather poor condition. The colony is a small, irregular thin sheet encrusting a colony of bryozoa. The peripheral layer of the test is filled with minute granules and by large amounts of sand which are present in the internal test. The zooids are strongly contracted and up to 4 mm long, but usually shorter. A simple, small atrial languet arises from the upper margin of the slit-like atrial opening. The branchial sac has 9 rows of stigmata, but the number of stigmata per row is obscured. The abdomen is the same size as the thorax. The stomach is asymmetrical and has five, deep longitudinal folds. The posterior abdomen is about half as long as the zooid and zooids examined contain no gonads.

Remarks. This specimen might be identical to A. lobatum: Van Name, 1945 although the latter specimens may have fewer rows of stigmata ("about seven" according to Van Name 1945: 29). The specimens from Guadeloupe have nine rows of stigmata ( Monniot and Monniot, 1984). It is difficult to determine if all of the mentioned specimens belong to the same species, although they are probably not related to A. lobatum Savigny, 1816 originally described from the Red Sea (for discussion see Kott, 1992: 512–513).