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A Rare Record of the Salp, Thetys Vagina (Tunicata: Thaliacea) From Western Scottish Waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

David W. Sims
David W. Sims
Affiliation:
Plymouth Environmental Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
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Extract

There are no species of salps (Order: Salpida) indigenous to British waters. Those species that can be found, the most abundant being Salpa fusiformis Cuvier (Fraser, 1981) are carried to British and Irish waters from the open ocean of the western Atlantic. Because of this salps can be good indicators of oceanic water movements near to Britain (Fraser, 1981). The largest species of the Salpidae is Thetys vagina (Tilesius, 1802) which generally reaches ≥230 mm in total length (TL) in the solitary asexual form and ~250 mm TL in the aggregate sexual form (Metcalf, 1918; Fraser, 1981). However, a solitary form measuring 333 mm TL was caught in a trawl from the Hawaiian islands (Nakamura & Yount, 1958). The distribution of T. vagina is usually limited to warm water throughout the Atlantic, including the Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans (Berrill, 1950). Up to 1981 there have been only two records of T. vagina in British waters (Fraser, 1981). This short paper describes, to the best of my knowledge a third recording of this salp from British waters.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , August 1996 , pp. 833 - 834
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1996

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References

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