Genus: Ritteriella
Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa
(animals) >
Bilateria > Deuterostomia >
Chordata > Tunicata >
Thaliacea > Salpida > Family: Salpidae
Three species worldwide, all of which have wide
pelagic distributions that include southern
African seas.
Species native to southern Africa
Information from
World
Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), unless otherwise indicated.
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Ritteriella amboinensis
Widespread and "not uncommon" in all of the Indo-Pacific, with confirmed
records from the seas of the east coast of southern Africa (van Soest 1974). |
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Ritteriella picteti
Quite a rare species but with a wide distribution covering the Indian and
Pacific oceans. There are confirmed records from the seas of the east coast
of southern Africa (distribution map in van Soest 1974). |
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Ritteriella retracta
Widely distributed across all three oceans, from 50°N to 40°S (van Soest
1974). Recorded from the Benguela Current region by Gibbons (1999) and there
are confirmed records off the east coast of southern Africa by van Soest
(1974). |
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Publications
- Lazarus, B. I. and D. Dowler. 1979. Pelagic tunicata off the
west and south-west coasts of South Africa, 1964-1965. Fish.
Bull. S. Afr. 12:93-119.
- van Soest RWM. 1974. A revision of the genera Salpa
Forskål, 1775, Pegea Savigny, 1816, and Ritteriella
Metcalf, 1919 (Tunicata, Thaliacea). Beaufortia 22(293):
153-191.
Text by Hamish Robertson |
