Polycarpa plantei, Monniot, 2002

Monniot, Claude, 2002, Stolidobranch ascidians from the tropical western Indian Ocean, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 135 (1), pp. 65-120 : 87

POLYCARPA PLANTEI SP.NOV. ( Figs 14B , 18 )

Material

Holotype: MNHN S1 POL B 439, Madagascar: Nosy- Be, coll. R. Plante , 1968.

Other material examined: Madagascar, Nosy-Be, coll. R. Plante, 1966 and 1968; Seychelles: Mahé, anse à la Mouche, coll. Central Africa Museum.

Description

This species has a dark, soft tunic ( Fig. 14B ). Bodies 1–3 cm in diameter were collected over several years in the same place at Nosy-Be by R. Plante. Two larger specimens, 5 cm in diameter, come from the Seychelles, and one of them has a pale colour.

The corrugated anterior part of the tunic lacks epibionts or sediment, but the ventral part is more or less covered with varied debris. The inconspicuous siphons are separated by half the body width. Opposite to the siphons the soft and thin tunic extends thick ramifications and filaments encrusted with sediment, or it makes a short, thick peduncle ( Fig. 14B ). The body wall is slightly transparent and reveals the gonads and gut ( Fig. 18A ). The musculature is weak. In Madagascar specimens preserved in formalin, each siphon has a large velum with a black rim. The roughly 40 oral tentacles are thin and long, distributed in two rather similar orders, separated by much smaller tentacles.

The dorsal V of the prepharyngeal band is sharp. The dorsal tubercle does not protrude and opens in a S-shaped slit. The smooth-edged dorsal lamina increases in height toward the oesophagus. The endostyle is long, without a postendostylar appendix. The four branchial folds on each side are high, but do not cover each other.

In a specimen 2 cm across the formula is:

Figures

Figure 14. A, Polycarpa gradata sp. nov. holotype. B, Polycarpa plantei sp. nov. specimens from Madagascar. C, Polycarpa pori sp. nov. D, Pyura gangelion sp. nov.

Figure 18. Polycarpa plantei sp. nov.: A, left side of a specimen from Madagascar. B, the same ventrally opened. C, anus. D, specimen from the Seychelles. Scale bars: A,B,D = 1cm, C = 2mm.