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Figure 1
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These colonies were found on settlement plates that were deployed in Moreton Bay Harbour (MBH), Australia in 2019-2020. MBH is an ideal habitat for these invasive species that are often introduced by boats (Rocha et al., 2019). (a) An orange and brown colony with zooids arranged in meandering systems. (b) An orange and deep orange/brown colony in which zooids are organised in parallel rows and a trail of ampullae is clearly visible. (c) A light orange colony, consisting of zooids arranged in irregular rows, that is likely to be Botrylloides violaceus (Oka, 1927). The size of the colonies was not obtained due to an inability to access the laboratory and the live specimens. Zooids are on average 2 mm in length and colony size varies greatly (Hyams et al., 2017). The specimens are believed to be members of the genus Botrylloides, but this taxonomic assignment is not incontrovertible in the absence of genetic and anatomical analyses (B. Swalla, personal communication, May 17, 2020).
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Figure 1
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