''Clavelina picta'', common name the painted tunicate, is a species of

tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

(sea squirt), in the genus ''Clavelina'' (the "little bottles"). These animals, like all

ascidians Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" ...

, are

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

filter feeders.

Description

''Clavelina picta'' have variable cool colours. The rims of the siphons are reddish to dark purple. Their bodies are translucent.Almost Us!? Sea Squirts, Tunicates, Ascidians, Subphylum Urochordata, Phylum Chordata pt 2
/ref> ''Clavelina picta'' are invertebrate filter feeders that feed by inducing a current into the branchial cavity from the incurrent siphon, with the help of the endostyle using cilia. Mucus glands in the endostyle, secretes mucus used to filter through the incoming water and food particles. Once sorted, the mucus is moved by cilia to move food into the esophagus along the dorsal groove. The diet of a tunicate is mostly made of algae and plankton. Tunicates also have tentacles that keep larger particles from entering the oral siphon. Tunicates, including ''C. picta,'' also have defensive measures such as acids or allelochemicals to inhibit microbes and predator organisms from infecting or consuming them. These properties make them valuable to pharmaceutical companies. Vanadium, an elemental metal is also found in some tunicates, including ''C. picta'', as a metabolic poison and this can help make them unpalatable to predators.

Taxonomy

Under the phylum Chordata, the Urochordates or Tunicata, do not have vertebrae but as larvae they have dorsal nerve cords and notochords. Tunicate larvae are also free-swimming and look like tadpoles. Larvae lose these distinctions when developing into an adult. This is hypothesized to be related to the habitat tunicates have adapted to. Tunicates are the closest living relative to vertebrates.

Distribution

This species is found in the waters of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

, and the Caribbean. Colonies are found in or around reefs and are mesopelagic benthic organisms staying towards the shore.

Habitat

''Clavelina picta'' often occurs in large clusters attached to

black coral Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, surrounded by the polyps (part of coral that is alive). Antipat ...

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

s, and gorgonians. Colonies may contain hundreds of individuals. ''C. picta'' form colonies that may contain hundreds of individuals. Larvae settle and use papillae to attach to a surface. The larvae use sensory organs to find a suitable habitat. These larval organs include eye spots and otoliths. The eye spot is used to detect light and otoliths to help orient the larvae to gravity. Because of the toxicity or odor of their skin, tunicates have few predators but sharks, reef fish, sea stars, snails, and crabs will sometimes eat tunicates.

Reproduction

''Clavelina picta'' can reproduce through asexual and sexual means. Asexual reproduction occurs through blastogenesis. Blastogenesis is reproduction through budding where somatic tissues develop into an embryo. Sexual reproduction in tunicates occurs by a single egg being fertilized. For the most part, tunicates are hermaphroditic, meaning they possess sperm and egg to reproduce independently. Fertilization occurs in the water through spawning, where the tunicates will release sperm and eggs to be fertilized and the larvae will settle next to adults.

References

Enterogona Animals described in 1900 {{tunicata-stub