Aplidium macrolobatum Kott, 1992

KOTT, PATRICIA, 2003, New syntheses and new species in the Australian Ascidiacea, Journal of Natural History 37 (13), pp. 1611-1653 : 1629

Aplidium macrolobatum Kott, 1992

(plate 1D)

Aplidium macrolobatum Kott, 1992a: 561 .

Distribution. New records: Queensland (Swain Reefs, QM G305732, G308413, G308424). The species is known from the Capricorn Group to Lizard I. in the Great Barrier Reef and on the mainland at Sarina.

Description. The newly recorded colonies have vermilion or apricot-coloured zooids showing through the cream-coloured soft test that has sparse sand scattered throughout. The surface of one of the colonies (QM G305732) is raised into conical prominences. Zooids are arranged in double rows up the sides of these prominences, converging to the large terminal common cloacal apertures. They resemble colonies of some Holozoidae (namely Sycozoa or Distaplia ). In preservative the zooids are orange, the pigment being present in the parietal thoracic wall.

Zooids are as previously described, with a long trifid atrial lip from the upper rim of the opening, eight to nine rows of stigmata (about 10 per row), five deep longitudinal stomach folds, strong muscle bands on the thorax joining into a ventral band on the abdomen and posterior abdomen which, when contracted, bunches the gonads up behind the thorax.

One of the newly recorded colonies (QM G308424) was on the back of a crab (see also Kott, 1992a: QM GH5663). The photographed colony (QM G305732) is 6 cm long.