Novel Australian Polyzoinae (Styelidae,Tunicata)

Species in the colonial subfamily Polyzoinae demonstrate a range of colonial organisations. Colony form appears to be significant at species level but not to have a phylogenetic significance at genus level, species in both speciose genera Polyandrocarpa and Stolonica having colonies either of separate zooids joined by basal stolons or they have completely embedded zooids. Polyandrocarpa and Oculinaria have characters that indicate a close affinity with solitary styelinid genera Polycarpa and Cnemidocarpa, respectively, and suggest that the subfamily is polyphyletic. Stolonica and other genera in the Polyzoinae, in which zooids and body organs are small and simplified, also appear to be polyphyletic assemblages of taxa but their relationships are masked by parallel evolution and convergence associated with replication and colony development. Previously overlooked in the siphonal linings of Oculinaria australis are overlapping spines possibly analagous with the rounded scales (see Kott 1985 Kott, P. 1985. The Australian Ascidiacea Pt 1, Phlebobranchia and Stolidobranchia.. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 23: 1–440.  [Google Scholar]) in siphons of Stolonica diptycha (Hartmeyer, 1919 Hartmeyer, R. 1919. Ascidien. In: Results of Dr E. Mjöberg's Swedish scientific expeditions to Australia 1910–13.. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar, 60(4): 1–150.  [Google Scholar]). Similar armature appears to be significant at species level in Pyuridae and occasionally Styelidae and it may be further evidence of polyphyly in Polyzoinae. One of the seven species reported (Stolonica vermiculata sp. nov. from Lord Howe I.) is new; one (Oculinaria australis from a range of locations around the southern half of the Australian continent) is recorded often; and five (Polyandrocarpa colemani known only from the Queensland–New South Wales border, P. colligata, Stolonica styeliformis and S. duploplicata all from the tropical western Pacific and Botryllocarpa elongata from Tasmania) are seldom recorded.