MOLGULIDAE, Lacaze-Duthiers, 1877

Primo, Carmen & Vázquez, Elsa, 2007, Ascidians collected during the Spanish Antarctic expedition CIEMAR 99 / 00 in the Bransfield and Gerlache Straits, Journal of Natural History 41 (29 - 32), pp. 1775-1810 : 1805-1806

Family MOLGULIDAE

Molgula hodgsoni Herdman, 1910

Molgula hodgsoni Herdman, 1910 ; Monniot and Monniot 1983, 1994; Ramos-Esplá et al. 2005.

Molgula concomitans Herdman, 1910 ; Herdman 1923.

Molgula angulata Arnback, 1938 ; Monniot C 1978.

Molgula sabulosa (non Quoy and Gaimard, 1834) Kott 1954; Vinogradova 1962.

Molgula setigera (non Arnback, 1938) Kott, 1954.

Molgula pedunculata (non Herdman, 1881) Millar, 1960; Kott 1969, 1971.

Distribution

New record: Bransfield Strait (Station B5: six specimens; Station B6: four specimens; Station B7: four specimens; from 14 to 28 mm height). Previously recorded: Antarctic continent, South Shetland, South Orkney, and South Georgia Islands ( Kott 1971; Monniot and Monniot 1983, 1994; Ramos-Esplá et al. 2005). From 46 to 650 m depth.

Remarks

Identification of several Antarctic Molgula species , especially small-sized species and frequently covered with sand, is difficult without a meticulous examination.

The two species found in the present collection, Molgula hodgsoni and M. pedunculata , can be differentiated by several characteristics summarized in Table III. Some untailed embryos were observed incubating in the atrial cavity.