Leptoclinides kingi Michaelsen, 1930

Kott, Patricia, 2005, New and little-known species of Didemnidae (Ascidiacea, Tunicata) from Australia (Part 3), Journal of Natural History 39 (26), pp. 2409-2479 : 2421

Leptoclinides kingi Michaelsen, 1930

( Figure 14D )

Leptoclinides dubius f. kingi Michaelsen 1930, p 507 .

Leptoclinides kingi: Kott 2001, p 67 and synonymy.

Distribution

Previously recorded (see Kott 2001): Western Australia (Buccaneer Archipelago, Cape Jaubert, Shark Bay); Queensland (Hervey Bay, Sarina, Whitsunday Is, Haslewood I., Wistari Reef). New record: Western Australia ( Shark Bay , WAM Z20557) .

Description

The newly recorded colony is a complex three-dimensional mass, with parts of it overgrowing its surface. Spicules are in a thin layer in the surface test but are sparse elsewhere. An extensive, horizontal, posterior-abdominal common cloacal cavity is beneath the crowded zooids lying parallel to one another at the surface of the colony. Spicules have long, pointed fusiform or conical pointed rays and there are some very rare globular spicules. The branchial siphon is cylindrical with six small points around it and a false siphon at its base. The posteriorly orientated atrial siphon has five pointed papillae around the rim of the aperture. Fourteen stigmata are in the anterior row of the branchial sac. The gut loop is folded up into a double loop. Gonads are immature in the newly recorded specimen.

Remarks

The species was previously recorded from Shark Bay by the German Expedition to SW Australia (see Michaelsen 1930). Initially, Michaelsen (1930) distinguished the present species from the related L. dubius by the form of the colony. Subsequently, Kott (2001) found differences in the spicules, those of L. dubius being more diverse than the spicules of the present species which mostly have pointed fusiform or long conical pointed rays although a few are small and globular spicules which Hartmeyer (1919) had also detected. The present species is more often recorded off north-western Australia than north-eastern Australia while the reverse is true of L. dubius . However, neither species is restricted to either one of these locations. This is one of the few tropical species not yet recorded outside Australian waters.

Figures

Figure 14. Scanning electron micrographs of the calcareous spicules of: (A) Leptoclinides decoratus (SAM E3257); (B) Leptoclinides dubius (WAM 1093.89); (C) Leptoclinides frustus sp. nov. (SAM E3255, holotype); (D) Leptoclinides kingi (WAM Z20557); (E) Leptoclinides minimus sp. nov. (WAM 30.84, holotype); (F) Leptoclinides pulvinus sp. nov. (QM G308742, holotype); (G) Polysyncraton galaxum (SAM E3250); (H) Polysyncraton glaucum (QM G308736).