Larvaceans, common members of marine plankton communities, filter-feed with renewable, external, mucous houses. The houses of some species of Oikopleuridae produce endogenous bioluminescent flashes upon mechanical stimulation and may contribute significantly to surface luminescence. To determine which members of the Oikopleuridae are luminescent, we examined several species for stimulable luminescence and for morphological features responsible for or associated with light production. Luminescence is newly reported from house rudiments and from clean, particle-free houses of Oikopleura rufescens and Stegosoma magnum. In these species, light emanates from previously undescribed fluorescent inclusions in the house rudiment. Neither fluorescence nor luminescence were detected from other parts of the body. Both species also possess oral glands, which apparently are not directly involved in light production but serve as a convenient taxonomic marker of luminescence. All six known luminescent species of larvaceans possess fluorescent and luminescent house rudiment inclusions and oral glands. We predict on these morphological grounds that all twelve species of Oikopleura (Vexillaria) plus the oikopleurids S. magnum and Folia gracilis are luminescent. In two other oikopleurids that lack oral glands, O. fusiformis and Megalocercus huxleyi, neither fluorescent inclusions nor luminescence were detected in clean houses and animals with house rudiments. However, some field-collected houses of these species produced luminescent flashes, perhaps from dinoflagellates on or in the houses. This report should facilitate assessment of the contribution of larvaceans to surface luminescence on a global scale.
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Galt et al. (1985) studied this question.