Didemnum rubeum Monniot & Monniot 1996

(Figure 1 B)

Didemnum rubeum Monniot F. & Monniot C., 1996: 164, figs14C, 16, pl. 3A; 2001:271 and synonymy.

Material. Indonesia. West Papua, Gam Island, Danau A Gam marine lake, 00°26.518’S – 130°41.134’E, 0.5m, 25/XI/2007, coll. L.J. Bell and L.E. Martin, DAG 0 65 (MNHN A2 DID C 587).

The colonies in thin orange crusts have a surface divided in polygonal areas each with a central common cloacal aperture (Fig. 1 B). In formalin the color turns greenish. The zooids are the same as described for the type with a wide atrial aperture without a languet, 8 stigmata in the first half row, a testis in two lobes closely applied to each other. The embryos are deeply pigmented. Fully developed larvae were not detected. The spicules are in balls with numerous flat ended rays as figured in Monniot & Monniot (1996 fig. 16).

D. rubeum is common in the western Pacific: Micronesia, Palau, Indonesia, Marianas and Fiji.