Doliolum nationalis
Borgert (1893)
Download a fact sheet for Doliolum nationalis (PDF 263KB)
Taxonomy
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Thaliacea |
| Order | Doliolida |
| Family | Doliolidae |
| Genus | Doliolum |
| Species | nationalis |
Size
- Gonozooid length up to 4 mm
- Nurse length up to 2mm
Distinguishing characteristics
Gonozooid (Blastozooid)
- Small, with a dextrally arched intestine
- Anus is at the right side of the animal, at M6
- Gill slits are attached dorsally behind M2, they extend backwards to M5 and turn slightly forward to the ventral attachment point just in front of M5
- Endostyle begins frontal at M2 and extends to M4
- Dorsal nerve ganglion is just in front of M4
- Testis is variable in length, it extends horizontally on the left side of the animal (other doliolid species can have testes that are either oblique or spherical)
- Differentiated from D. denticulatum by the length of the testes, the curved form of the gill slits and looking at where the gills end
Nurses
- Barrel shaped, without visceral mass, except for a heart
- Budding on the dorso-ventral processs
- M2-M8 fused in a continuous sheet
- Nurses of Doliolum nationalis and Doliolum denticulatum cannot be separated
Distribution
- The distribution in Australian includes
- Worldwide distribution North and Central Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, subtropical SW Atlantic Ocean, tropical Indian and W Pacific Oceans
Ecology
References
- Boltovskoy, D. (Ed.) (2005). Zooplankton of South Atlantic, dvd ETI Bioinformatics.
- Godeaux, J., Q. Bone and J.-C. Braconnot, 1998. Anatomy of Thaliacea. In: Q. Bone (ed.), 1998. The biology of pelagic tunicates. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp 1-24.
- Marine species identification portal, http://species-identification.org/index.php
- van Couwelaar, M. (2003). Zooplankton and micronekton of the North Sea. Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification, Amsterdam.