Perophora Multiclathrata
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''Perophora multiclathrata'' is a
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of colonial
sea squirt 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 ...
in the genus '' Perophora''. It is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific and the western Atlantic Ocean.


Description

A colony of ''Perophora multiclathrata'' consists of slender, branching stolons, with unstalked
zooid A zooid or zoöid is an animal that is part of a colonial animal. This lifestyle has been adopted by animals from separate unrelated taxa. Zooids are multicellular; their structure is similar to that of other solitary animals. The zooids can ...
s growing at intervals. Each zooid is long and has about twenty tentacles surrounding the buccal siphon, alternately long and short. The pharynx has five rows of stigmata, some of which extend from the first row into the second. The musculature in the atrial wall is distinctive with horizontal and radial elements and a circular muscle fibre surrounding the base of the atrial siphon allowing the atrium to become pouched and the atrial siphon to be pulled inward.


Distribution and habitat

''Perophora multiclathrata'' has a widespread distribution in both the tropical Indo-Pacific region and the tropical western Atlantic Ocean. In the Caribbean Sea it is found in small colonies under stones on back reef flats, and in sheltered mangrove lagoons. In East Timor, from where the type specimen came, it is often found on sheltered reefs where there is little water movement.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4910575 Perophoridae Animals described in 1904