I'CEYLON PEARL OYSTER FISHEBIES 1906 SUPPLEMENTARY REPORTS, No. XXXIX. j 



REPORT 



ON THE 



TUNICATA 



COLLECTED BY 



Professor HERDMAN, at f!EYLON, in 1902. 



BY 



W. A. HERDMAN, D.Sc, F.E.S.. 



PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IX THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. 



[With NINE PLATES.] 



This collection of Tunicata is not a large one and yet it is by far the largest that has, 

 so far as is known, ever been brought from the Ceylon seas, and it more than trebles 

 the number of species recorded from the northern part of the Indian Ocean. Most of 

 the Tunicata known to science have been described from specimens found on the 

 coasts of Europe and of North America, in Malaysian seas, in the Antarctic or on the 

 Australian shores ; and it is curious how few have been found in tropical seas outside 

 the West Indies and the Malay Archipelago. 



In 1891, in the 'Revised Classification of the Tunicata,' I was able to record only 

 13 species as known from the Indian Ocean, and of these three were Salpida? the 

 species of Ascidiacea being only Molgula martensii, Traustedt, Microcosmus 

 claudicans (Savigny), Rhabd ocynthia mauritiaiuv(v . Drasche), Rh. pallida (Heller), 

 Polycarpa nigricans, Heller, Styela areolata, Heller, Cordla novaroe, v. Drasche, 

 Ascidia depressiuscula, Heller, Ecteinascidia thurstoni, Herd man, and Polyclinum 

 constellatum, Savigny. 



If, however, the " Indian Ocean Area " in a wide sense be extended so as to 

 embrace the Red Sea, the seas of Malaysia and the coasts of Australia, a very large 

 number of additional species will be brought in. On the other hand, the 1891 list 

 contains only three species recorded actually from the coast of Ceylon, viz., Ascidia 



