Styela coriacea

(Alder and Hancock, 1848)

Description

External appearance
Solitary. Body depressed and dome-shaped to cylindrical, up to 26 mm in diameter and 30 mm in height. Test wrinkled, with or without encrusting sand.

Characters
Both siphons 4-lobed. From 24-36 simple branchial tentacles of variable size. Branchial sac with numerous forws of straight stigmata; four branchial folds on each side. Gut left of branchial sac; stomach horizontal with longitudinal folds and a single small liver diverticulum. One gonad on each side of mantle wall, comprising a central ovary and separate, but adjacent male follicles (S. coriacea morphology).

Habitat
Attached to hard substrata; from shallow water down to at least 600 meters.

Distribution
Arctic Boreal distribution.

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