Pyura haustor

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Pyura haustor
Pyura haustor.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Tunicata
Class: Ascidiacea
Order: Stolidobranchia
Family: Pyuridae
Genus: Pyura
Species:
P. haustor
Binomial name
Pyura haustor
(Stimpson, 1864) [1]
Synonyms [1]
  • Cynthia erecta Ritter, 1900
  • Cynthia haustor Stimpson, 1864
  • Cynthia macrosiphonus Ritter, 1900
  • Halocynthia haustor (Stimpson, 1864)
  • Halocynthia johnsoni Ritter, 1909
  • Halocynthia washingtonia Ritter, 1913

Pyura haustor is a species of sessile ascidian, or sea squirt, that lives in coastal waters in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean, attached to rocks or artificial structures. Common names for this species include the wrinkled seapump, the wrinkled sea squirt and the warty tunicate. [2]

Contents

Description

This sea squirt is nearly as tall as it is wide, growing to about 5 by 3.5 cm (2.0 by 1.4 in). It is not attached to the substrate by a stalk, as are some members of the genus, but is attached over a wide base and appears roughly globular, with two obvious siphons projecting upwards. these siphons can be projected a long way when feeding, and can be retracted if danger threatens. The tunic is tough, wrinkled and folded, and does not have spiny projections. The color is usually dark brown, tinged with red on the siphons, but much of the surface is often hidden by sand, shell fragments or debris adhering to the tunic, or the tunic may be overgrown with other organisms. [2]

Distribution and habitat

Pyura haustor is native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean where its range extends from the Shumagin Islands in Alaska southwards to San Diego County, California. It is found attached to rocks, piers, pilings and floats, as well as to the holdfasts of kelp. It occurs in both sheltered and exposed locations, but in the San Juan Islands, where it is common, it avoids the areas with the strongest currents. Its depth range is from the lower intertidal zone down to about 200 m (660 ft). [2]

Ecology

Like other tunicates, this sea squirt draws in large quantities of water through its buccal siphon, filters out the edible particles and expels the water through the atrial siphon. Among the planktonic particles ingested are a variety of invertebrate larvae, however researchers have found that the activities of the sea squirt are not sufficient to deplete the local larval populations appreciably. [3] The diet includes the eggs and larvae of crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks and other tunicates. [2]

The eggs of this sea squirt are gray, but there are conflicting reports on whether this species liberates the eggs into the water column or whether the developing embryos are brooded. The seastar Solaster stimpsoni is a predator of this tunicate. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunicate</span> Marine animals, subphylum of chordates

A tunicate is an exclusively marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata. This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords. The subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, and the term urochordates is still sometimes used for these animals. They are the only chordates that have lost their myomeric segmentation, with the possible exception of the seriation of the gill slits. However, doliolids still display segmentation of the muscle bands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ascidiacea</span> Paraphyletic group of tunicates comprising sea squirts

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 "tunic" made of a polysaccharide.

<i>Corella willmeriana</i> Species of sea squirt

Corella willmeriana is a solitary tunicate in the family Corellidae. It is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean where it lives on the seabed at depths down to about 75 m (250 ft) between Alaska and California.

<i>Pyura stolonifera</i> Species of tunicates

Pyura stolonifera, commonly known in South Africa as "red bait", is a sessile ascidian, or sea squirt, that lives in coastal waters attached to rocks or artificial structures. Sea squirts are named for their habit of squirting a stream of water from their exhalant siphons when touched at low tide.

<i>Clavelina picta</i> Species of sea squirt

Clavelina picta, common name the painted tunicate, is a species of tunicate, in the genus Clavelina. These animals, like all ascidians, are sessile filter feeders.

<i>Ecteinascidia turbinata</i> Species of sea squirt

Ecteinascidia turbinata, commonly known as the mangrove tunicate, is a species of tunicate in the family Perophoridae. It was described to science in 1880 by William Abbott Herdman. The cancer drug trabectedin can be isolated from this species.

<i>Didemnum vexillum</i> Species of sea squirt

Didemnum vexillum is a species of colonial tunicate in the family Didemnidae. It is commonly called sea vomit, marine vomit, pancake batter tunicate, or carpet sea squirt. It is thought to be native to Japan, but it has been reported as an invasive species in a number of places in Europe, North America and New Zealand. It is sometimes given the nickname "D. vex" because of the vexing way in which it dominates marine ecosystems when introduced into new locations; however, the species epithet vexillum actually derives from the Latin word for flag, and the species was so named because of the way colonies' long tendrils appear to wave in the water like a flag.

<i>Ciona savignyi</i> Species of sea squirt

Ciona savignyi is a marine animal sometimes known as the Pacific transparent sea squirt or solitary sea squirt. It is a species of tunicates in the family Cionidae. It is found in shallow waters around Japan and has spread to the west coast of North America where it is regarded as an invasive species.

<i>Pyura pachydermatina</i> Species of sea squirt

Pyura pachydermatina is a sea tulip, a solitary species of tunicate in the suborder Stolidobranchia. It is native to shallow waters around New Zealand.

Molgula occulta is a species of solitary tunicate in the family Molgulidae. It is native to the north eastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The specific name occulta means "tailless" and refers to the tunicate's larva, which lacks the tail found in some other species in the genus Molgula.

Polycarpa fibrosa is a species of tunicate in the family Styelidae. It is brown and globular and its outer surface is covered with a mat of fibrils. It normally lies buried in soft sediment on the seabed with only its two siphons protruding. It occurs in the Arctic Ocean and northern Atlantic Ocean. P. fibrosa was first identified and described by the American malacologist William Stimpson in 1852.

Molgula citrina is a species of solitary tunicate in the family Molgulidae. It is found on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. In 2008 it was found in Kachemak Bay in Alaska, the first time it had been detected in the Pacific Ocean.

<i>Polyclinum planum</i> Species of sea squirt

Polyclinum planum is a compound ascidian commonly known as the elephant ear tunicate. It is an ascidian tunicate in the family Polyclinidae. Ascidians are also known as sea squirts.

<i>Polycarpa pomaria</i> Species of sea squirt

Polycarpa pomaria is a species of tunicate or sea squirt in the family Styelidae. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean where it lives on the seabed at depths down to about 450 metres (1,500 ft).

<i>Dendrodoa grossularia</i> Species of tunicates

Dendrodoa grossularia is a species of tunicate or sea squirt in the family Styelidae, commonly known as the baked bean ascidian. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean where it is common in shallow water and on the lower shore in exposed rocky sites.

<i>Phallusia mammillata</i> Species of sea squirt

Phallusia mammillata is a solitary marine tunicate of the ascidian class found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

<i>Boltenia villosa</i> Species of sea squirt

Boltenia villosa is a species of tunicate, a marine invertebrate of the family Pyuridae. Common names include spiny-headed tunicate, hairy sea squirt, stalked hairy sea squirt and bristly tunicate. This species was first described in 1864 by the American marine biologist William Stimpson who gave it the name Cynthia villosa. It was later transferred to the genus Boltenia. The type locality is Puget Sound, Washington state, United States.

<i>Cnemidocarpa finmarkiensis</i> Species of sea squirt

Cnemidocarpa finmarkiensis is a species of solitary ascidian tunicate in the family Styelidae. Common names include broad base sea squirt, orange sea squirt, red sea squirt, shiny orange sea squirt, shiny red tunicate and Finmark's tunicate. It is native to shallow waters in the northern and northeastern Pacific Ocean.

<i>Lamellaria perspicua</i> Species of gastropod

Lamellaria perspicua, commonly known as the transparent lamellaria, is a species of small, slug-like sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Velutinidae. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, where it feeds on colonial ascidians.

<i>Halocynthia igaboja</i> Species of sea squirt

Halocynthia igaboja, commonly known as sea hedgehog, bristly tunicate or spiny sea squirt, is a species of tunicate in the family Pyuridae. It is native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean. This species was first described in 1906 by the Japanese marine biologist Asajiro Oka, who gave it the name Cynthia ritteri. It was later transferred to the genus Halocynthia.

References

  1. 1 2 Sanamyan, Karen (2018). "Pyura haustor (Stimpson, 1864)". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Cowles, Dave (2005). "Pyura haustor (Stimpson, 1864)". Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  3. Bingham, R.L.; Walters, L.J. (1989). "Solitary ascidians as predators of invertebrate larvae: evidence from gut analyses and plankton samples". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 131 (2): 147–159. doi:10.1016/0022-0981(89)90004-X.