New England Marine Invader ID Card Colonial Tunicates
Cristina Kennedy Cristina Kennedy Betsy Rickards Arjan Gittenberger Botrylloides violaceus Botryllus schlosseri Didemnum vexillum Diplosoma listerianum Sheath Tunicate Golden Star Tunicate "Mystery" Colonial Tunicate Diplosoma Tunicate • Bright orange, red, yellow, or • Blue-black, green, violet, brown, • Tan, cream, or light orange-pink • Milky, grayish black, green, dull/dark purple red, orange, or yellow • Dense colonies of microscopic or tan • Zooids in chain-like rows • Zooids zooids, tunic contains small • Small zooids Microscopic view Can form arranged white dots (spicules) within a extensive in star-like May form transparent colonies in clusters long, ropey tunic encrusting • Native tendrils or • Can feel and lobe large mats forms origins resembling slimy to unclear pancake batter the touch
Adrienne Pappal Adrienne Pappal Adrienne Pappal Tracy Krueger Colonial tunicates are individual animals (zooids) organized within a gelatinous cover (tunic). They attach to docks, rocks, pilings, ship hulls, seaweeds, and eelgrass in subtidal and protected intertidal areas. B. violaceus and D. vexillum are native to the Northwest Pacific, and the origins of B. schlosseri and D. listerianum are currently unknown. All of these species are found throughout New England. Colonial tunicates may require examination with a hand lens to distinguish between species in the field (definitive ID requires a microscope).
Marine Invader Monitoring and MASSACHUSETTS OFFICE OF Information Collaborative (MIMIC) Established Invaders COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT Similar Species Phylum Porifera Sponges • A wide variety of native and non-native sponges occur in New England and can be visually similar to colonial tunicates, especially encrusting forms • On closer inspection, the look and feel of a sponge is different from the firmer and more organized structure of colonial tunicates Adrienne Pappal Dann Blackwood • Sponges do not contain zooids and will compress when squeezed Aplidium spp. Didemnum albidum Sea Pork Northern White Crust • Orange, pink, or dull gray • Similar to D. vexillum but • Can appear as a thick mass typically bright white resembling congealed fat • Feels firm to the touch with • Attaches to hard structures in dense calcareous spicules in shallow to deep waters or the tunic Adrienne Pappal on sand • Occurs in shallow to deep water, attached to hard surfaces
Adrienne Pappal Arjan Gittenberger Native Clathria prolifera (Red Beard Sponge) (top le) and a slime sponge (bottom le); Halichondria spp. (Crumb-of-Bread Sponges) (right) include the visually similar native Halichondria panicea and
Adrienne Pappal Claude Nozères non-native Halichondria bowerbanki Species are native unless otherwise noted.