Eudistoma carolinense Van Name 1945

Eudistoma carolinense Van Name, 1945

Figure 7.

Stations. SS1; SC12; SS10; SS12; CP4408.

The long thin lobes of the colonies, deeply incrusted with sand, arise from a narrow common base (Fig. 7 A). The top of the lobes are slightly enlarged and contain 6 to 8 thoraces. The zooids are only 3mm in length and present inside the upper part of the colony lobes. The body wall is thin with a weak musculature. Both siphons have 6 lobes. The thorax has a square shape (Fig. 7 C) with 16 stigmata per half row in each of the two first rows. The oesophagus is long compared to the thorax. The short stomach (Fig. 7 D) is followed by an enlarged mid-intestine. The rectum begins in a circular caecum. No pyloric gland could be seen. The gonads inside the gut loop have 6 to 8 testis vesicles and a central ovary. A single tadpole is incubated in the atrial cavity. The larvae trunk is approximately 0.4mm in length (Fig. 7 B). The 3 adhesive papillae with short peduncles are lined by 8 to 9 rounded ampullae on each side. These observations exactly correspond to Van Name’s (1945) description and to Caribbean material (Monniot F. 1983 and fig.). It is likely that E. carolinense in Millar (1977) refers to 2 different species as he suggested, only his figure 6 representing E. carolinense.

This species has a wide distribution from Florida to Brazil but is limited to the western Atlantic Ocean.