Synoicum adareanum (Herdman, 1902)
provided by British Antarctic Survey
Description
Orange in colour. This mid-sized squirt can get up to 20cm high and about half this in diameter. It has a round to phallic shaped upper, which feels quite solid to touch. Like in Sycozoa species the clearly visible zooids are arranged circling around the common cloaca. The lower stalk, from which several upper parts may come from, feels much tougher
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Species distribution
15m to deep water, on hard substrates from some Subantarctic islands, throughout the Scotia Arc to the Antarctic Peninsula and Continental Antarctic coastline.
S. adareanum is quite conspicuous as orange blobs in mature hard substratum communities. Unlike other colonial ascidians, though like some Aplidium species (not shown), they rarely occur as epibionts. The specimen shown is clean but some can be quite sediment strewn and even have particles incorporated into the outer test. Like other ascidians they are suspension feeders filtering phytoplankton. Their predators are unknown to date.
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