Pyrostremma agassizi  (Strawberry jam fire salp)

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Tunicata > Thaliacea > Pyrosomatida > Family: Pyrosomatidae > Genus: Pyrostremma

Pyrostremma agassizi, Celebes Sea, October 2007. [photo Russ Hopcroft - University of Alaska Fairbanks & CoML ©]

Description

Forms soft, limp colonies up to 47 cm long and up to 5 cm wide that are not tapered (unlike Pyrostremma spinosum). Zooids are transparent and usually red-coloured, giving the colony a strawberry jam like appearance. The open end of the colony has four short 4-sided processes that come off quite easily. Zooids are 8 - 10 mm in length (van Soest 1981).

Distribution and habitat

A fairly common pelagic species found in all oceans from 40ºN to 45ºS (van Soest 1981). I have not come across any specific records for southern African waters although the distribution map in van Soest (1881) shows two records to the west of southern Africa at 0º longitude (10ºE is the limit for southern African waters, as defined for this website).

Publications

• van Soest RWM. 1981. A monograph of the order Pyrosomatida (Tunicata, Thaliacea). Journal of Plankton Research 3(4): 603–631.

Text by Hamish Robertson