Record of the rare oceanic salp Helicosalpa komaii (Tunicata: Thaliacea: Salpida) in the Northeast Pacific
2014
Hereu, Clara M. | Suárez-Morales, Eduardo | Lavaniegos Espejo, Bertha E.
We report for the first time the presence of a rare salp Helicosalpa komaii (Ihle and Ihle-Landenberg, 1936) on the west coast of Baja California peninsula (26°52.7' N, 117°09.2' W). The single specimen recorded was a solitary zooid of 200mm length and 90ml of displacement volume. It was recognized by having a distinctive highly convoluted heart-shaped dorsal tubercle. The total number of muscle fibers in the solitary zooid (MI to MVII=517) surpassed that of the other 2 known congeners supporting its identity as H. komaii. H. komaii increases to 29 the total number of salps species reported in coastal and oceanic waters off north-central Baja California (gamma diversity). We hypothesize that the presence of H. komaii in the study area may be the result of onshore intrusions of subtropical waters originating west-southwest of the California Current domain.
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