Polycarpa urmeli Sanamyan & Hissmann, 2008, sp. nov.

• Main Authors: Sanamyan, Karen, Hissmann, Karen
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Ascidiacea; Pleurogona; Styelidae; Polycarpa; Polycarpa urmeli; Pacific; Kamchatka
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6234497; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6234497

Polycarpa urmeli sp. nov. (Figures 1, 2, 3) Material examined. One specimen (holotype): JAG" dive # 660, 18 November 1999 277 m on rocky ground off the southeast coast of the volcanic island Sangihé, northeast Indonesia (03°22.08´N, 125 °31.19´E). This specimen is deposited in the Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography (KBPIG), KBPIG 1 / 1356. Second specimen: from JAGO dive # 659, 17 November 1999 217 m on rocky ground off the northeast coast of Sangihé Island (03°44.75´N, 125 °25.19´E). Further material: In addition to the collected samples, numerous observations of live specimens of this species were made during a series of submersible dives performed along the North Indonesian Sangihé Islands and the northern part of Sulawesi. A video camera mounted on the submersible´s manipulator arm provided detailed in situ video close-ups of the animals. The specimens were collected alive with the manipulator arm of the submersible and stored in a sampling tube for the rest of the dive. At the surface, they were transferred to a glass aquarium with fresh sea water for initial examination and measurement. They were then narcotized with magnesium-chloride and preserved in 3 % formalin mixed with sea water. Only one specimen (the holotype) has been examined anatomically, the second specimen kept intact. Description. Living specimens have an elongate and almost cylindrical body and are supported on a fleshy stalk arising from the antero-ventral part of the body (Fig. 1 A). Body and stalk are of about the same length. The body of the living holotype is 12 cm long and the stalk 14 cm. In preservative the body is about 10 cm long and 5 cm wide and the stalk 11.5 cm long and 2 cm diameter at the upper end just below the body, increasing to about 3 cm at the base. The stalk is attached to the substrate by a flat attachment area. In the living specimens, the body is orientated horizontally on the stalk with the dorsum uppermost. In preserved specimens, the stalk is bent dorsally (probably by contraction of its ...