Appendicularia
Diagnostic morphological features

The general morphology of appendicularians has been represented in Figs. Oikopleurinae, Oikopleurinae-trunk, Oikopleuridae-house; Bathochordaeinae; Fritillarinae-trunk, Fritillarinae-tail, Fritillaridae-house; Appendicularinae, Appendicularinae-trunk; Kowalevskiidae, Kowalevskiidae-trunk, Kowalevskiidae-house, in order to help identify the structures in the remaining figures. The most commonly used diagnostic characteristics are: the general shape of the trunk and tail; presence/absence of lips in the mouth; shape and position of the endostyle; presence and shape of buccal glands (cells probably related to the production of bioluminescence, located at both sides of the endostyle); shape and position of the spiracles (gill openings), esophagus, stomach, intestine and rectum; shape and position of the genital organs; presence/absence of subchordal cells (cells of unknown function located in the tail to the right (ventral) side of the chorda), and amphichordal cells (cells of unknown function located at both sides of the chorda).

In the following synopsis, based mostly on Fenaux (1966, 1967, 1993) and Bückmann and Kapp (1975), succinct information for the identification of the taxa so far recorded from the South Atlantic is presented. Some species which are very likely to occur in the area, such as the Antarctic species Pelagopleura australis and P. magna, are also included.