Aplidium elegans is a colonial sea squirt forming pink cushions from 3 to 4 cm long.
The zooids are embedded in a common test and grouped around sinuous, irregular
cloacal canals. The oral siphons are slightly prominent and bordered of eight small white lobes. Colonies are
attached to rocks.
It is found from 5 m to 20 m deep in the
English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. A similar species is known in the Mediterranean Sea.
(source : European Register of Marine Species)
Zooid : Individual, single animal.
Test : or tunic: thick layer secreted by the mantel, containing cellulose and protecting the animal.
Oral siphon : Opening by which water is drawn in the ascidian.
Cloacal : Related to the cavity through which water is expelled from the ascidian.
Aplidium elegans
Aplidium elegans
Aplidium elegans
Detail
Top photograph :
© Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission :
Aplidium elegans,
Iles Glénan, South Brittany, West of France. Depth 12 meters.
Bottom photographs : © Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission :
Aplidium elegans, . Rade de Brest, West Brittany, South of France. Depth 12 meters.
© Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission :
Aplidium elegans, . Ria d'Etel, South Brittany, West of France. Depth 10 meters.
© Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission :
Aplidium elegans, Detail. Ria d'Etel, South Brittany, West of France. Depth 10 meters.
Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2005-2010.
Translation : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2007-2010.
