Metandrocarpa taylori Huntsman, 1912

Lambert, Gretchen, 2019, The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz, Zootaxa 4657 (3), pp. 401-436 : 422

Metandrocarpa taylori Huntsman, 1912

Figure 11C

IHAK 10 BHAK 0537 UF 2457. Fifth Beach cove boulders, low intertidal. Three clumps.

IHAK 65 BHAK 3246 UF 2564. East side of North Beach boulder field, low intertidal.

MHAK 14 BHAK 0623 UF 2474. Tippy Rock Bay low intertidal with B. villosa and P. annectens .

ZHAK 35 Sasquatch Commode tidepool.

The zooids of this colonial species are very similar in size and morphology to the previous species, M. dura , but in M. taylori the zooids are connected only by stolons. Each zooid is completely covered by its own tunic. The stolons may be very short and the zooids crowded but are always separate. The tunic is bright orangeish red and always completely smooth and devoid of epibionts. See Huntsman (1912b) and Van Name (1945) for detailed morphology. This species is common from Alaska to southern California ( Huntsman 1912b; Ritter & Forsyth 1917; Van Name 1945; Abbott & Newberry 1980; O’Clair & O’Clair 1998; Lamb & Hanby 2005).

Figures

FIGURE 11. Styelidae. A: Cnemidocarpa finmarkiensis about 2 cm in width; B: Metandrocarpa dura; C: M. taylori; D: Styela gibbsii 1.7 cm in length; E: S. montereyensis, longest one 8 cm; F: S. truncata 2 cm in length. Scale bars: B, 1 mm; C, 2.5 mm. A and F photos by G. Paulay.