Morphological Description and Weight-Length Relationship of the Intertidal Sipuncula Siphonosoma australe (Keferstein, 1865) along the Central Coast of Vietnam
Phuong-Thao Ho1, 2, Thi Tuong Vy Nguyen3, Ngoc Hai Tran3 and Tran Van Giang4*
1Laboratory of Ecology and Environmental Management, Science and Technology Advanced Institute, Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2Faculty of Applied Technology, School of Engineering and Technology, Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
3Faculty of Chemistry-Biology-Environment, Pham Van Dong University, Quang Ngai City, 49000, Vietnam
4Biology Department, Hue University of Education, Hue University, 49000, Vietnam
* Corresponding author: tranvangiang@dhsphue.edu.vn, tvgiang@hueuni.edu.vn
Fig. 1.
Geographic map showing the sampling sites of sipuncula Siphonosoma australe reported in the present study. Dark gray area represents continental area and white area represents oceanic area. Black dots indicate sampling sites of the sipuncula S. australe.
Fig. 2.
A photo of a representative sipuncula Siphonosoma australe from Thua Thien Hue province (body length = 28.31 cm and introvert length = 10.9 cm) with introvert everted (A) and retracted (B). nr, narrower; tr, trunk and it, introvert.
Fig. 3.
Internal anatomy of the sipuncula Siphonosoma australe from Thua Thien Hue province (body length = 28.31 cm and introvert length = 10.9 cm). Schematic drawing of mouth (A), contractile vessel (B), coelomic cavity after dissection of the body wall (C), retractor muscles (D) and rectum (E).
cv, contractile vessel/introvert; tt, tentacles; cvv, contractile vessel villi; k, kidneys; es, esophagus; drm, dorsal retractor muscles; rt, rectum; in, intestine; lm, longitudinal muscles; vn, ventral nerve cord; vrm, ventral retractor muscles.
Fig. 4.
Microscope images of reproductive organ of female sipuncula Siphonosoma australe from Thua Thien Hue province at pre-mature (A) and mature stages (B). Black arrows point eggs cells.
Fig. 5.
The Kruskal-Wallis results assessing the differences in anatomical measurements of Trunk length (A), Trunk diameter (B), Body length (C), Body mass (D), Introvert length (E), Length ratio of the introvert and trunk (F), Count of tentacles (G) and Count of longitudinal bands (H). White colored boxes represent for measurements of the sipuncula from different provinces. Gradient black colored boxes represent the movement distance of sipuncula from different locations. The bottom and top of the boxes are the 25th, and 75th percentiles, the dashed vertical lines show the 50th percentiles, and the ends of the whiskers represent the minimum and maximum estimates of the movement distance. Outliers are represented by black dots beyond the whiskers.
Fig. 6.
Correlation between body mass/introvert length and body length of the sipuncula Siphonosoma australe from different provinces (A) and localities (B). Legend correlation lines for each sub-populations are presented inset of the graphs.
