Cystodytes dellachiajei ( Della Valle, 1877 )

Kott, Patricia, 2008, Ascidiacea (Tunicata) from deep waters of the continental shelf of Western Australia, Journal of Natural History 42 (15 - 16), pp. 1103-1217 : 1115-1116

Cystodytes dellachiajei ( Della Valle, 1877)

Distoma dellachiajei Della Valle 1877, p. 40 .

Cystodytes dellachiajei: Kott 1990a, p. 179 and synonymy.

Distribution

Previously recorded (see Kott 1990a): Australia (Port Hedland and south to Albany across the Great Australian Bight, South Australian Gulfs, d’Entrecasteaux Channel and north to Maria I. Port Phillip Bay and NSW, the Great Barrier Reef); New Zealand; New Caledonia; Palau Is; Tahiti; Philippines; Fiji; Sri Lanka; West Indian Ocean; Mediterranean; Atlantic Ocean. New records: Western Australia, CSIRO SS10/05 (Bald I., Stn 35, 157 m, 24.11.05, QM G328481; Jurien Bay, Stn 83, 113 m, 02.12.05, QM G328159, G328163; Zuytdorp, Stn 104, 97 m 05.12.05, QM G328169).

Kott (1990a) notes that the species is not confined to the tropics.

Remarks

The newly recorded specimens are small gelatinous cushions, some scraps of larger slabs. Each zooid is completely encased in a capsule of characteristic saucer-shaped spicules showing through the firm, translucent test as an opaque globe.