''Clavelina picta'', common name the painted tunicate, is a species of

tunicate Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata ( ). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

(sea squirt), in the genus ''Clavelina'' (the "little bottles"). These animals, like all

ascidians Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians or sea squirts, is a paraphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer test or "tunic" made of the polysaccharid ...

, are

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

filter feeder Filter feeders are aquatic animals that acquire nutrients by feeding on organic matters, food particles or smaller organisms (bacteria, microalgae and zooplanktons) suspended in water, typically by having the water pass over or through a s ...

Description

''Clavelina picta'' have variable cool colours. The rims of the siphons are reddish to dark purple. Their bodies are translucent.Almost Us!? Sea Squirts, Tunicates, Ascidians, Subphylum Urochordata, Phylum Chordata pt 2
/ref> ''Clavelina picta'' are invertebrate filter feeders that feed by inducing a current into the branchial cavity from the incurrent siphon, with the help of the endostyle using cilia. Mucous glands in the endostyle secrete mucus used to filter through the incoming water and food particles. Once sorted, the mucus is moved by cilia to move food into the esophagus along the dorsal groove. The diet of a tunicate is mostly made of algae and plankton. Tunicates also have tentacles that keep larger particles from entering the oral siphon. Tunicates, including ''C. picta,'' also have defensive measures such as acids or allelochemicals to inhibit microbes and predator organisms from infecting or consuming them. These properties make them valuable to pharmaceutical companies. Vanadium, an elemental metal is also found in some tunicates, including ''C. picta'', as a metabolic poison and this can help make them unpalatable to predators.

Taxonomy

Under the phylum Chordata, the Urochordates or Tunicata, do not have vertebrae but as larvae they have dorsal nerve cords and notochords. Tunicate larvae are also free-swimming and look like tadpoles. Larvae lose these distinctions when developing into an adult. This is hypothesized to be related to the habitat tunicates have adapted to. Tunicates are the closest living relative to vertebrates.

Distribution

This species is found in the waters of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. Colonies are found in or around reefs and are mesopelagic benthic organisms staying towards the shore.

Habitat

''Clavelina picta'' often occurs in large clusters attached to

black coral Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, which are surrounded by their colored polyps (part of coral th ...

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s, and gorgonians. Colonies may contain hundreds of individuals. ''C. picta'' form colonies that may contain hundreds of individuals. Larvae settle and use papillae to attach to a surface. The larvae use sensory organs to find a suitable habitat. These larval organs include eye spots and otoliths. The eye spot is used to detect light and otoliths to help orient the larvae to gravity. Because of the toxicity or odor of their skin, tunicates have few predators but sharks, reef fish, sea stars, snails, and crabs will sometimes eat tunicates.

Reproduction

''Clavelina picta'' can reproduce through asexual and sexual means. Asexual reproduction occurs through blastogenesis. Blastogenesis is reproduction through budding where somatic tissues develop into an embryo. Sexual reproduction in tunicates occurs by a single egg being fertilized. For the most part, tunicates are hermaphroditic, meaning they possess sperm and egg to reproduce independently. Fertilization occurs in the water through spawning, where the tunicates will release sperm and eggs to be fertilized and the larvae will settle next to adults.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4911276 Clavelinidae Animals described in 1900