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Ascidia paratropa

Ascidia paratropa

(Huntsman, 1912)

GBIF:159168003

0year

ABOUT

Descriptions(1)

Figure 10 C IHAK 55 BHAK 1731 UF 2542. Kwakshua Petroglyph Cliff, vertical rock wall high current. Scuba, 17 – 20 m. One specimen. This species can be up to 11 cm in length and is thought to have a long life span. It is distinguished by its large columnar size and the clear colorless thick tunic covered with short tubercles. Its growth form is upright, attached only at the posterior end. Both siphons are at the anterior end. For detailed descriptions see Huntsman (1912 a, b as Ascidiopsis paratropa) and Van Name (1945). This widely distributed but somewhat rare native of the west coast of N. America has a distribution from Alaska to central California (Van Name 1945; Abbott & Newberry 1980; Lamb & Hanby 2005).
Lambert, Gretchen (2019): The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz. Zootaxa 4657 (3): 401-436, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4657.3.1

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CLASSIFICATION

Taxonomic Classification Tree

AnimaliaChordataAscidiaceaEnterogonaAscidiidaeAscidiaAscidia paratropa

MULTIMEDIA

Media Files(1)

FIGURE 10. Figure 10. Phlebobranchia. A, B: Ascidia columbiana. A: whole animal right side, anterior on the right. Arrows indicate oral siphon opening (on right) and atrial opening above. B: anterior end around oral opening showing tunic papillations. C: Ascidia paratropa 9 cm in length; D: Ciona savignyi 6.2 cm in length; E: Chelyosoma productum 1.5 cm in diameter; F: Corella inflata about 3 cm in length; G: Corella willmeriana about 3 cm in length; H: Perophora annectens. Scale bars: A, 1.5 cm; B, 2 mm; H, 4 mm. C, D, F, G photos by G. Paulay.

Imageimage/png© Lambert, GretchenLambert, Gretchen

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Source Information

The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz

checklist

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Lambert, Gretchen (2019): The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz. Zootaxa 4657 (3): 401-436, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4657.3.1

Abstract

A three-week intensive marine biodiversity survey was carried out at a small remote region of the central British Columbia coast at and near the Calvert Island Marine Station (Hakai Institute) July 21–August 11, 2017. The survey included daily sampling by the staff and a number of visiting taxonomists with specialties covering all the major groups of invertebrates. Many marine habitats were sampled: rocky and sand/gravel intertidal and tidepools, eelgrass meadows, shallow and deeper subtidal by snorkel and Scuba, plus artificial surfaces including the sides and bottom of the large floating dock at the Institute and settlement plates set out up to a year previously at various subtidal sites. Many new species were recorded by all the taxonomists. In this very biodiverse remote area 36 ascidian species were identified: 18 Aplousobranchia, 7 Phlebobranchia, and 11 Stolidobranchia, comprising a total of 15 solitary and 21 colonial species including two undescribed colonial species. This represents almost one third of all the known North American species from Alaska to southern California in this limited very remote area. Remarkably, only two are possible non-natives. Diplosoma listerianum (Milne-Edwards, 1841), was collected mostly on natural substrates including deeper areas sampled by Scuba, and one colony occurred on a settlement plate. A few Ciona savignyi Herdman, 1882 were collected, two from natural substrates and four from artificial surfaces. There were no botryllids, Styela clava Herdman, 1881, Didemnum vexillum Kott, 2002, or Molgula manhattensis (De Kay, 1843), though these are all common and sometimes very abundant non-natives in other parts of BC and along much of the U.S. west coast. Most of the species encountered are known in northern California, Washington, and southern BC, but only a small number are represented among the few known Alaska species.

Lambert G, plazi (2019). The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz. Plazi.org taxonomic treatments database. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4657.3.1 accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-06-16.

CC0Published 8/20/2019View dataset
GBIF Usage Key
159168003
Dataset Key
3414318d-7570-49ac-9013-be4e1f1e6347
Origin
source
Backbone Key
2330545
Taxon ID
6A2E3761A923FFD41390FC17DD2DFAB7.taxon
Last Crawled
6/10/2026
Last Interpreted
6/10/2026
View on GBIFSource Reference