A brick-red to orange colony in which each animal keeps its own rounded body and its own pair of siphons, all joined at the base by a shared tunic. The result is a bumpy cluster rather than the smooth sheet of the star ascidians, up to about 10 cm (6 in) across.
That arrangement sits halfway between the solitary and the truly colonial sea squirts, and the group as a whole covers the full range - single animals, loose clusters, and sheets where dozens share one outlet. All of them filter the same way and all are hermaphrodites; what differs is how much of the body is held in common. Colour makes this one findable on a shaded slope, where red reads as dark grey to the eye at depth and only returns under a torch.
How to recognise it
- brick-red to orange colony of separate rounded animals joined at the base
- each animal keeps its own pair of siphons
- surface bumpy rather than smooth-sheeted
- colonies up to 10 cm across
