Aplidium kottae Brunetti, 2007

Lambert, Gretchen, 2019, The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz, Zootaxa 4657 (3), pp. 401-436 : 403

Aplidium kottae Brunetti, 2007

Figure 2 A–D

IHAK 10 BHAK 0540 UF 2459. Fifth Beach cove and boulders, intertidal.

IHAK 22 BHAK 1682, 1683. UF 2512, 2513. Mercury Islet, Scuba, 5–15 m.

IHAK 28 Second Beach shallow, Scuba. Large colony, 9 cm across.

IHAK 37 Crazy Town surge channel shallow, Scuba.

IHAK 42 BHAK 1712 UF 2526. Starfish Rocky Reef.

IHAK 60 Rattenbury Pinnacle, Scuba, 17–20 m depth .

RHAK 6 Seventh Beach north wall low intertidal tidepool. Clumps with Euherdmania claviformis ( Ritter, 1903 and Eudistoma ritteri Van Name, 1945 .

SHAK 25 BHAK 0629, 0630 UF 2480, 2481. Sixth Beach low intertidal rocky.

ZHAK 35 Fifth Beach, Sasquatch’s Commode tidepool.

The colonies are typically reddish or reddish orange though a few are tan and brown; they may attain a size of several cm or more. There may occasionally be some sand in the basal layer of tunic. The zooids are usually arranged in more or less circular systems, and out of water the colony surface is marked with depressions at the locations of the common cloacal apertures, especially when the zooids are contracted. The zooids are larger in size and also longer than those of A. californicum ( Ritter & Forsyth, 1917) , with 14–16 rows of stigmata. The atrial languet is bifid or trifid at its tip ( Fig. 2C ). See Van Name (1945) for description (as Amaroucium solidum ).

This is the species long known as Aplidium solidum ( Ritter & Forsyth, 1917) (described as Amaroucium solidum ). It is common along the entire U.S. and British Columbia coast. Unfortunately a different species, Psammaplidium solidum , described by Herdman in 1899 from Australia, became Aplidium solidum (Herdman, 1899) after the synonymizing of Psammaplidium Herdman, 1886 under Aplidium Savigny, 1816 . Because this species is so common and well known along the North American west coast, in future publications Aplidium kottae should be referenced as “formerly Aplidium solidum ( Ritter & Forsyth, 1917) (see Brunetti 2007)”. Distribution: British Columbia to southern California and Mexico ( Van Name 1945; Lambert CC et al. 1996; Lamb & Hanby 2005).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Aplousobranchia, Polyclinidae. A–D, Aplidium kottae. A, B: part of colony; C: siphons of a single zooid; D: tad- pole. E: Aplidium californicum. F–H: Aplidium sp. F, G: part of colony; H: zooid. Scale bars: A, 1.4 cm; B, 0.7 cm; C, 34 µm; D, 143 µm; E, 0.7 cm; F, 1 cm; G, 4 mm; H, 1 mm.