(van Beneden, 1846)

Description

External appearance
Solitary. Body depressed, dome-shaped to upright and cylindrical; coloured red to brown; up to 20 mm high, not more than 15 mm in diameter. Sometimes found in aggregations of individuals.

Characters
Both siphons 4-lobed. About 30 simple branchial tentacles of variable size. Branchial sac with numerous rows of straight stigmata; 3 rudimentary folds on each side marked by groups of inner longitudinal bars. Gut on the left; stomach horizontal with longitudinal folds. One cylindrical gonad on the right side near the body wall, parallel to the endostyle. The greatest part of the gonad is ovarian; the male follicles are located alongside the ovary (D. grossularia morphology).

Habitat
Attached to hard substrata; from lower shore down to at least 600 metres;

Distribution
Arctic-Boreal distribution.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Tunicata
Class Ascidiacea
Order Pleurogona
Suborder Stolidobranchia
Family Styelidae
Genus Dendrodoa
Species grossularia

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Dendrodoa grossularia (Van Beneden, 1846)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Ascidia papilla Dalyell, 1839(nomen oblitum)
Ascidia grossularia van Beneden, 1846
Styelopsis grossularia Alder & Hancock, 1907
Styelopsis sphaerica Alder & Hancock, 1907

Alder, J. & A. Hancock 1907. The Brithish Tunicata: an unfinished monograph, volume II, edited by J. Hopkinson. Ray Scoiety, London.

Berril, N.J. 1950. The Tunicata, with an account of the British species. Ray Society, London. 354 pp.

Knight-Jones, E.W. & J.S. Ryland 1990. Hemichordata and Urochordata. In: P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland (eds), The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe, vol. 2 Molluscs to chordates, Clarendon Press, Oxford: 872-904.

Millar, R.H. 1966. Tunicata Ascidiacea. Marine invertebrates of Scandinavia, 1: 1-123.

Millar, R.H. 1970. British Ascidians. Synopses of the British Fauna, N.S 1, 1-92.

Berril, N.J., 1950. The Tunicata, with an account of the British species. Ray Society, London. 354 pp.

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