Ecteinascidia imperfecta Tokioka, 1950

KOTT, PATRICIA, 2003, New syntheses and new species in the Australian Ascidiacea, Journal of Natural History 37 (13), pp. 1611-1653 : 1636

Ecteinascidia imperfecta Tokioka, 1950

Ecteinascidia imperfecta Tokioka, 1950: 129 ; 1967: 137; Kott, 1985: 92.

Ecteinascidia remanea Monniot and Monniot, 2001: 302 .

Distribution. The species is now recorded from the Palau Is (its type locality) on three occasions, and from the northern Great Barrier Reef.

Remarks. The extent to which the internal longitudinal vessels in this species are interrupted appears to be variable, few being entire in specimens from the northern Great Barrier Reef (Kott, 1985) and some from the Palau Is (Monniot and Monniot, 2001); while in other specimens (including the types) only some were interrupted. Specimens from the Great Barrier Reef also appear to have more muscles on the right side of the body (see Kott, 1985: figure 37b), although those on the left are identical in all colonies. It is not likely that the absence of post pyloric divisions of the gut (said to characterize E. remanea ) are other than apparent. The gonads are described for the first time in newly recorded material from the Palau Is (Monniot and Monniot, 2001).