• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.102-107
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• 2024

Two colonial ascidians, Eudistoma glaucum and Eudistoma purpureum, are reported for the first time in Korean waters through taxonomic study on ascidians collected from a subtidal zone of Jejudo Island. Eudistoma glaucum is distinguished by opaque green color of colony in living, massive colony with large corona, smooth surface of corona, sparse sand only at the peduncle, zooids in circle, about 8-10 stigmata of 3 stigmata rows and test process. Eudistoma purpureum is distinguished by brilliant, opaque, purple color of colony in living, less lobed colony form, smooth shiny surface, sparse sand only at the basal test, absence of symbionts, zooids in circle, no distinct bulging sphincter in siphon, long atrial siphon and about 20 stigmata of 3 stigmata rows. As a result of this study, four species of the genus Eudistoma are now recorded in Korean fauna.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.107-111
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• 1998

Two kinds of humoral factors were observed in 2 orders, 7 families, 10 genera, and 15 different species of Korean ascidians. They are the naturally occuring hemagglutinins and/or hemolysins against human erythrocytes A, B, and 0. All but two species showed aggregative activity, although there were considerable variations in titer. The weak agglutinating and lytic activities were increased in the presence of $Ca^{++}$. Much higher activities of agglutination and/or lysis were shown in the hemolymph than extracts from tissues, and a higher response was shown in adults than in juveniles. No distinct differences from collected locations were observed. The hemolymph of Ciona intestinalis showed a strong hemolytic (cytotoxic) and weak agglutinins capacities. In addition, hemolymph of Styela plicata and Styela clava clava also showed hemoagglutining and hemolytic activities. Botryllus tuberatus had hemagglutining and weak lytic activities. Other species showed only hemagglutining activity. These agglutining activities are probably responsible for carbohydrate recognition in solitary or colonial ascidian. The lytic activity is probably responsible for antibacterial defense and nonfusion reactions between allogeneic colonial ascidians, especially the genus of Botryllus. The occurrences of humoral factors in ascidians were independent of their geographic distributions.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.26-30
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• 2021

Botrylloides violaceus is native to the Northwest Pacific, including Korea. This species has many color variations in alive condition and a variety of zooid compound forms, and therefore difficult to identification in the field survey. This is the first report of COI DNA barcodes of B. violaceus from Korea. The intra-specific pairwise distance between Korean and UK populations had ranged from 1.4% to 2.6%. The inter-specific variations between B. violaceus and other Botrylloides species were 21.0-36.8%. The new DNA barcodes for Korean B. violaceus may be helpful in the identification of colonial ascidians, which is a difficult task when based on morphological identification.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

Colonial ascidians, Clavelina elegans (Oka, 1927) and Clavelina miniata Watanabe & Tokioka, 1973 are reported for the first time in Korean waters. As a result of this study, three species of the genus Clavelina are now recorded in Korean fauna. Clavelina elegans and C. miniata have been reported only from Japan. We expanded the distribution range of these species to Korea. The specimens of C. elegans and C. miniata were collected from the subtidal zone of Beomseom and Chagwido in Jeju-do by SCUBA diving. Detailed descriptions, illustrations and photographs of these species are provided in this paper.