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EasiCAT
– Species Fact Sheet
Distaplia skoogi
Michaelsen, W. 1934
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Ascidiacea
Order
Aplousobranchia
Family
Holozoidae
Colonies large (10-20cm), thick folded encrusting cushion often growing on other invertebrates such as large sea fans.
Test consistency soft often falling apart when collected with the test seeming to "melt away".
Colour varies from white, cream, brown to purple and blue.
The zooid are visibly arrange in circular or oval systems.
Section through the specimen show and milky outer margin and a more transparent inner test.
The surface of the colony is often scarred by burrows of crustaceans.
Zooids (2-3 mm long), branchial siphon short and lobed.
Atrial opening with tongue shaped languet or lip.
Branchial sac with 4 rows of 20-22 stigmata.
Gonads are contained in a sac-like posterior abdomen connected to the abdomen by a narrow neck.
Larvae about 1 mm long.
References
Michaelsen, W. 1934 The ascidians of the Cape Province of South Africa.22:129-163
Millar, R. H. 1962 Further descriptions of South African ascidians56:113-221
Monniot, C.; Monniot, F.; Griffiths, C. and Schleyer, M. 2001 Ascidians of South Africa.108:1-141