Biodiversity & Conservation

A sea squirt - Diplosoma listerianum

Diplosoma listerianum

Image Steve Trewhella - Diplosoma listerianum on rocky substratum. Image width ca XX cm.
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Distribution map

Diplosoma listerianum recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

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Diplosoma listerianum is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Chordata Sea squirts, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals
Class Ascidiacea Sea squirts
Authority Milne-Edwards, 1841
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Diplosoma listerianum has been widely recorded throughout the British Isles.
Habitat information icon Habitat information This species can be found growing on algae fronds, seagrasses (Zostera leaves) and hard substrata. It is often observed on marina pontoons. Mainly sublittoral and may also reach depths of 80 m.
Text page icon Description Diplosoma listerianum is a colonial ascidian forming thin (0.2 cm), flat, soft gelatinous sheets. They are translucent with scattered brown or grey pigmented cells. The individual animals (zooids) are 0.2 cm long and grouped around a common large exhalent opening (cloaca or atriopore). The cloacal openings are slightly raised, not always visible from above. Each zooid has four rows of stigmata filter feeding apertures, which are often almost completely exposed due to the wide atrial opening.
Identifying features
  • Colonial ascidian with small zooids 0.2 cm long.
  • Thin (0.2 cm), flat, soft gelatinous sheets.
  • Translucent with scattered brown or grey spots.
  • Zooids have wide atrial opening.
  • Zooids grouped around common large atriopore.
Additional information icon Additional information This colonial ascidian is subject to predation by Trivia monacha the spotted cowrie, and the sea slug Gonoidoris nodosa. Similar species to Diplosoma listerianum are: Diplosoma spongiforme and Lissordinum perforatum.

This review can be cited as follows:

Sonia Rowley 2008. Diplosoma listerianum. A sea squirt. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 23/05/2013]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3179>