Phallusia nigra Savigny, 1816

Lambert, Gretchen, Lee, Serina Siew-Chen & Teo, Serena Lay-Ming, 2021, Ascidians collected during the 2013 Singapore Strait International Marine Biodiversity Workshop, Zootaxa 4933 (1), pp. 1-38 : 14-16

Phallusia nigra Savigny, 1816

#2647, one specimen.

Distribution: Many of the following locations reported in the literature are most likely not this species: Persian Gulf, Bahrain, Oman, Red Sea, Israel, Truk, India, Singapore, Guam, Japan, Hawaii, West Africa, Caribbean, Martinique, Brazil, Bermuda. Vandepas et al. (2015) stated: “Based on morphological and molecular characters, the Phallusia reported in the Pacific (Hawaii, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia) are Phallusia philippinensis . We have no evidence that Phallusia nigra is present in Hawaii or Okinawa, Japan, while P. nigra and P. philippinensis cooccur in Singapore. Atlantic populations of dark Phallusia , as well as the Red Sea populations, were all P. nigra . Mediterranean specimens from Spain and France were Phallusia fumigata ( Grube, 1864) ”.

Other detailed descriptions with illustrations: Van Name (1945, as Ascidia nigra ), Abbott et al. (1997), Bonnet & Rocha (2011a, b), Monniot F. (2018a). Additional brief references: Millar (1965, 1975, 1988), Monniot C. (1983a), Nishikawa (1984), Monniot C. & Monniot F. (1997), Meenakshi (1998 incorrect identification, not P. nigra ), Meliane & Ramos-Esplá (2001), Lambert (2003 likely not P. nigra , probably P. philippinensis ), Rocha & Costa (2005), Rocha et al. (2005), Shenkar & Loya (2009), Rocha et al. (2012).