Rade de Brest, France, 7 meters, 2012, WBN
Rade de Brest, France, 12 meters, 2008, WBN
Close-up: lobes of the oral siphons, 2007, WBN
Rade de Brest, France, 8 meters, 2011, WBN
Ria d’Etel, France, 10 meters, 2008, WBN
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.
Aplidium elegans is found from 5 m to 20 m deep in the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
Biota (Superdomain)
Animalia (Kingdom)
Chordata (Phylum)
Tunicata (Subphylum)
Ascidiacea (Class)
Aplousobranchia (Order)
Polyclinidae (Family)
Aplidium (Genus)
Aplidium elegans (Species)
Zooid : individual, single animal.
Cloacal : related to the cavity through which water is expelled from the ascidian.
Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2005 - 2025.
Photos : ©
Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with his kind permission.
Websites and reference works : Consult bibliography
Image satellite: © Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community.
Données de distribution : Aplidium elegans (Giard, 1872) in GBIF Secretariat (2019). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-09-17.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
Biota (Superdomain)
Animalia (Kingdom)
Chordata (Phylum)
Tunicata (Subphylum)
Ascidiacea (Class)
Aplousobranchia (Order)
Polyclinidae (Family)
Aplidium (Genus)
Aplidium elegans (Species)
Zooid : individual, single animal.
Cloacal : related to the cavity through which water is expelled from the ascidian.
Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2005 - 2025.
Photos : ©
Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with his kind permission.
Websites and reference works : Consult bibliography
Bay-Nouailhat A., September 2005, Description of Aplidium elegans, [On line] https://www.european-marine-life.org/32/aplidium-elegans.php, consulted on 2025 September 17.
Author
Chargée d’études en environnement marin
Plongeuse professionnelle - Naturaliste
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