Leptoclinides planus Monniot 2010, n. sp.
Creators: name: Monniot, Françoise
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Ascidiacea
Aplousobranchia
Didemnidae
Leptoclinides
Leptoclinides planus

description: <i>Leptoclinides planus</i> n. sp. (Figures 14, 15) <b>Material.</b> Coll. P.L. Colin, <b>Vanuatu</b>: Espiritu Santo, Aore Island, 15°33.24’S – 167°09.50’E, 18m, 01/XII/ 2000, CRCHO 457 (MNHN A2 LEP 116). The colonies are large flat crusts 3mm thick. An orange colour was noted by the collector. The density of spicules makes the surface layer raspy. The colonies are tough and can be easily removed from the substrate. The narrow cloacal channels are limited to the thoracic level. The zooids are difficult to extract from the tunic. The thorax (14A), about 0.5 mm long, has a cylindrical oral siphon with a smooth edge: a strong sphincter encloses its base. The atrial siphon is tubular originating at mid-length of the thorax its rim dorsally expanded in a point. The stigmata could not be counted in the adult thorax but 7 to 8 stigmata can be seen in the first row of larval oozooids (Fig. 14B). The waist is particularly long. The abdomen is pear shaped, included in the basal tunic which also contains larvae and some brown organic inclusions. The gut loop is flat. A single testis lobe (Fig. 14D) is circled with 4 turns of the sperm duct. In some zooids the sperm duct is clockwise coiled, in some others two testes with their own sperm duct are placed close to each other (Fig.14C). The larvae 0.7mm in length have 3 adhesive papillae, with long stems, sided by 3 vesicles on each side plus one vesicle dorsal and one ventral (Fig. 15B). The larva is well developed with 4 rows of stigmata and the abdomen is sketched. The tail is wound in ¾ of a turn. The spicules (Fig. 15A) are stellate with short chisel-shaped rays coming out from a dense central mass. Their diameter is 0.07mm. Leptoclinides species having a single testis vesicle are not numerous worldwide: <i>L. aspiculatum</i> Romanov, 1989, from the Japan Sea, is devoid of spicules <i>L. capensis</i> Michaelsen, 1934 from South Africa and Kerguelen, has a larva 1.5mm long. <i>L. faeroensis</i> Bjerkan, 1905 from Iceland, has a larva 1.2mm long with 4 pairs of vesicules lining the adhesive papillae. <i>L. fungiformis</i> Kott, 1972, from South Australia has pedunculate colonies. <i>L. macrotestis</i> Romanov, 1977, from Behring Sea, has numerous turns of the sperm duct <i>L. unitestis</i> Monniot F., 1989 from New Caledonia, differs in several points; the spicules are larger with fewer rays, the oral siphon has 6 pointed lobes and the cloacal siphon is shorter. The larva 1.4mm long has about 12 stigmata in the first row.
description: Published as part of <i>Monniot, Françoise, 2010, Some new data on tropical western Pacific Ascidians, pp. 1-29 in Zootaxa 2561 (1)</i> on pages 13-14, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2561.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5304193
description: {"references": ["Romanov, V. N. (1989) Colonial ascidians of the family Didemnidae from the seas of the USSR and adjacent waters. Fauna USSR (n. s.), 1 (1), 1 - 224.", "Michaelsen, W. (1934) The ascidians of the Cape Province of South Africa. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 22, 126 - 163.", "Bjerkan, P. (1905) Ascidien von dem norwegischen Fischerdampfer \" Michael Sars \" in den Jahren 190061904 gesammelt. Bergens Museum Aarsb., 2 (5), 1 - 30.", "Kott, P. (1972) The ascidian of South Australia. II. Eastern sector of the Great Australian Bight and Investigator Strait. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 96 (4), 165 - 196.", "Romanov, V. N. (1977) Ascidians (Didemnidae) from the sublittoral zones of the Kurile and Komodore islands. Biol. Morya (Vladivostok) 2, 51 - 62."]}