Family DOLIOLIDAE

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Introduction

The Doliolidae Bronn, 1862 are the only family in the order Doliolida. All doliolids are free swimming barrel-shaped organisms with eight to nine circular muscle rings around the body, which is open at each end, the mouth anteriorly and atrial aperture posteriorly. Stigmata are in an S-shaped band at the posterior end of the pharynx.

Doliolids are polymorphic. Fertilisation is external, eggs being liberated through the atrial aperture. Tailed larvae are produced as in the Ascidiacea. Loss of the tail results in a functional oozooid with a ventral vegetative stolon from which a continuous series of buds (blastozooids) is produced. These migrate around the right side of the body to the postero-dorsal surface, forming a colony with the oozooid ('nurse'). The blastozooids, attached to the dorsal spur of the 'nurse', are trophozooids (or gastrozooids) in the lateral rows and phorozooids in a median line. The sexual gonozooids of the next generation are eventually produced by, and break free from, the phorozooids. This complex life cycle sometimes is abbreviated by the omission of one or more stages (Braconnot 1963).

Doliolidae are not diverse although both Doliolum denticulatum Quoy & Gaimard, 1834 and Dolioletta gegenbauri (Uljanin, 1884) are common components of the eastern Australian jelly plankton. The family has been reviewed by Garstang (1933) and Neumann (1935). Thompson (1945) has documented the group as it occurs in eastern Australian waters.

General References

Braconnot, J.C. 1963. Etude du cycle annuel des Salpes et Dolioles en rade de Villefranche-sur-Mer. Journal du Conseil Permanent pour l'Exploration de la Mer 28: 21-36

Bronn, H.G. 1862. Weichthiere. pp. 1281–1772. In, Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Tier-Reichs. Vol. 3 Suppl. (89–98). Leipzig : C.F. Winter.

Garstang, W. 1933. Report on the Tunicata. 1. Doliolida. British Antarctic 'Terra Nova' Expedition 1910. Zoology 4: 195-251

Neumann, G. 1935. Thaliacea. pp. 203-500 in Kükenthal, W. & Krumbach, T. (eds). Handbuch der Zoologie. Berlin : Walter de Gruyter Vol. 5(2).

Quoy, J.R.C. & Gaimard, J.P. 1834. Zoologie, Mollusques pp. 559–626. in, Voyages de découvertes de l'Astrolabe 1826–1829, Vol. 3. Paris : Pilet Ainé.

Thompson, H. 1945. Pelagic Tunicates of Australia. Melbourne : Council for Scientific and Industrial Research 196 pp. 75 pls.

Uljanin, B.N. 1884. Die Arten des Gattung Doliolum in Golfe von Neapel und den angrenzen den Meeresabschnitten. Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel. 1-140 pls i-xii

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