Herdmania coutieri Monniot 2002

Herdmania coutieri Monniot, 2002

(Figure 34)

Herdmania coutieri Monniot C. 2002: 108 figs 34–35AB. Red Sea, Bahrain, Djibouti, Mozambique.

Station. TR 1 (MNHN S2 HER 90)

Madagascar, Tulear, Vasseur col. (MNHN S2 HER 88)

The single specimen 38mm large has a thick tunic with the siphons well apart. The body wall is yellow with red siphons. The muscles are strong in ribbons distributed over the whole body. The oral tentacles are large and much branched. The dorsal tubercle opens in a S inside a deep V of the peripharyngeal band. The branchial sac has 9 folds on each side of 12 to 18 longitudinal vessels, ending in a long papilla at the oesophagus entrance. The digestive loop is particularly long. The stomach is covered with pointed hepatic papillae (Fig. 34). The anal edge is cut in 2 large lamellae themselves cut in irregular lobes. Both gonads are long with a central ovary surrounded by testis vesicles. The left gonad occupies the gut loop.. The female papilla is apical and simple; the male papilla opens close to it posteriorly (Fig. 34). The spicules of the common shape in Herdmania genus occur in all organs.

The species distribution includes the whole western Indian Ocean from the Red Sea to the southern coast of Madagascar