Record of the rare oceanic salp Helicosalpa komaii (Tunicata: Thaliacea: Salpida) in the Northeast Pacific

Abstract

We report for the first time the presence of a rare salp Helicosalpa komaii (Ihle and Ihle-Landenberg,1936) on the west coast of Baja California peninsula (26°52.7’ N, 117°09.2’ W). The single specimen recorded was asolitary zooid of 200 mm length and 90 ml of displacement volume. It was recognized by having a distinctive highlyconvoluted heart-shaped dorsal tubercle. The total number of muscle fibers in the solitary zooid (MI to MVII= 517)surpassed that of the other 2 known congeners supporting its identity as H. komaii. H. komaii increases to 29 the totalnumber of salps species reported in coastal and oceanic waters off north-central Baja California (gamma diversity).We hypothesize that the presence of H. komaii in the study area may be the result of onshore intrusions of subtropicalwaters originating west-southwest of the California Current domain.