Some ascidians from the southern coast of Madagascar collected during the “ AtimoVatae ” survey
Author
Monniot, Françoise
text
Zootaxa
2012
3197
1
42
journal article
45406
10.5281/zenodo.246182
4c036a63-9718-48de-97a2-f29c5976eb99
1175-5326
246182
Pseudodistoma arborescens
Millar, 1967
Pseudodistoma arborescens
Millar, 1967
: 359
Fig. 1
,
Madagascar
.
Monniot F.1987
,
New Caledonia
.
Stations.
TA 28 (MNHN A1 PSE 80).
Madagascar
,
Nosy
Be,
28m
,
13/07/1992
, Laboute col. (MNHN A1 PSE 33)
Maldives
, 04°
12.94 N
–73°
29.04 E
,
7m
,
23/09/1997
, CRRF col. (MNHN A1 PSE 49)
The colonies are made of a bush of lobes erect on sandy stalks, exactly as described and figured by
Millar (1967)
. The bulbous top of a zooid is about
5mm
in diameter, the stalk reaches
20mm
. In formalin the zooids removed from the tunic are yellow and the testis lobes are often pink. The post-abdomen is particularly long, the ovary is far from the abdomen and the testis vesicles lie behind the ovary but do not reach the extremity of the postabdomen. A long vascular process penetrates into the common peduncle of the colony lobes. No larvae have been found.
The geographic distribution is wide:
Madagascar
and
Maldives
in the Indian Ocean and
New Caledonia
in the south-west Pacific.