Asajirus

Monniot, Françoise, 2016, Ascidians (Tunicata) of the French Guiana Expedition, Zootaxa 4114 (3), pp. 201-245 : 239-240

Asajirus sp.

Station. CP 4407, 495m

The single specimen 13mm in length and 5mm in width is a little damaged. The body is covered with sand and has tunic filaments. The 6 large oral lobes are pinnate in two groups: 2 dorsal and 4 ventral. Devoid of tunic the musculature is easily seen with a strong oral sphincter and a wide ventral ribbon extending over the ventral side of the body made of parallel fibres. The neural ganglion is situated over a round neural gland in the narrow dorsal space between both siphons. The internal structure is hardly visible the tissues are not well fixed and dissection was not possible. The pharynx appears as a tube dorso-ventrally flat.The shape of the gut cannot be seen the stomach is damaged. A large renal vesicle contains a concretion. There is one gonad on each side made of a mulberry- shaped testis with a short central papilla. The ovary in an arc begins against the testis and ends close to the atrial aperture. Too many elements are missing to give a species name but this specimen likely belongs to the genus Asajirus .

In the Atlantic Ocean several species have the same gonad shape with a long curved ovary and a massive testis ( Monniot C. & F. 1990) but they differ in the musculature design. Snanamyan & Sanamyan (2006) included all these species in Asajirus indicus ( Oka, 1913) widely distributed in the Pacific Ocean on the basis of individual variability but we do not follow this opinion.