Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Volume 44
American Museum of Natural History
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, June 26, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...the test. As found in the West Indian region, the colonies of this genus are very variable in their minor characters, and the question of how many species should be recognized is not an easy one to settle. The larger aeries of specimens now available contains intermediate examples that make it necessary to unite certain forms treated as distinct species in my account of the Bermuda ascidians (1902). Trididemnum savignii Herdman, 1886 Kigures 7-9 1896. Ditlemnum savignii Herdman, 'Rept. Voy. Challenger, Zool.,' XIV, p. 261, PI. xxxiv, figs. 1-5. 1891. Didemnnm savignii Herdman, Journ. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., XXIII, p. 629. 1902. Didemnum savignii+D. atrocanum Van Name, Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., XI, pp. 358, 359, PI. Li, figs. 27, 30, 34, 35; PI. Lix, figs. 112, 114. 1909-1911. Trididemnum sairignyi + T. atrocanum Hartmeyer, BronnVTier-reich,' III, suppl., p. 1446, 1633. 1920. Trididemnum natalense + T. sai'ignyi + T. atrocanum Michaelsen, Jahrb. Wiss. Anst., Hamburg, XXXVII, suppl., pp. 3, 6, text fig. 1. This ascidian forms incrusting colonies, occasionally of considerabl size (one specimen measures 75 mm. across) and of very variable thickness, usually only about 2 to 3 mm., but often considerably more when growing on an irregular surface. The external appearance of the colony is greatly dependent on two characters, both subject to very great variability in different specimens, first, the number and distribution of the large stellate spicules and, second, the abundance and distribution of the pigment cells in the test. The spicules are of comparatively large size, generally at least.04 to.06 mm.; in some colonies some of them are.08 or. 10 mm. in diameter, or even more. They are generally beautifully regular in form, being stellate, with...