Category: Invertebrate
Phylum: Urochordata
Class: Ascidiacea
Family: Styelidae

Notes
It is pinkish beige in colour and the siphons can be lined with maroon or apricot. It lives under rocky overhangs and under rocks from mid tide level down. Filters small plankton out of the water column. They may brood their young in their internal cavity. The larvae are known as tadpoles as they have the beginings of a backbone, a notochord.


References
Gordon D. P. (ed) (2009) NZ Inventory of Biodiversity; Vol 1 Kingdom Animalia. Canterbury University Press.