Abstract
Ciallusia longa Van Name, 1918, the type species of the family Ciallusiidae is confirmed as a junior synonym of Pterygascidia mirabilis Sluiter, 1904. Although relationships with Ciona and Perophora have successively been proposed, examination of 12 newly recorded specimens from the northwestern coast of Western Australia, together with a review of documented specimens, demonstrate a relationship with the Phlebobranchia. As in many Phlebobranchia, the taxon has a large, flat branchial sac, simple branchial tentacles, translucent gelatinous test, specialisation of muscles into long rows of bundles of short parallel bands and a straight gut. However, rather than Corellidae (as Sluiter had proposed on the basis of the lack of ciliated epithelium lining the pharyngeal perforations) the family most closely related appears to be the family Agneziidae (see Huus 1936 and Kott 1985) which has dorsal languets. The newly recorded specimens extend the known geographic range of this species from the tropical western Pacific to the Indian Ocean.References
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