(Müller, 1776)
Description
External appearance
Colonial, but zooids are only attached at the base by means of stolons. Test transparent, with bright white, yellow or pink lines indicating the endostyle, peripharyngeal bands and the dorsal lamina.
Characters
Zooids up to 20 mm in length; body divided into thorax, abdomen and stolon. Both siphons short and unlobed . Twelve simple branchial tentacles of variable length. Branchial sac bearing up to 17 rows of straight stigmata; without inner longitudinal vessels; no folds. Gut abdominal; stomach smooth and square-shaped. Gonads located in the lower part of intestinal loop (C. lepadiformis zooid).
Habitat
Attached to hard substrata; from low water level up to depths of 50 metres.
Distribution
Generally from Norway, Kattegat, Shetlands, Bay of Biscay down to the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea.