Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Ascidiacea

Order: Stolidobranchia

Family: Styelidae

Genus: Polycarpa

IG-NHM-C2-4

Description

Polycarpa grows to a height of 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 in). It has an urn-shaped, hollow body
with two siphons, one at the top and the other on the side. The body colour of this
tunicate is white with purple and orange patches and purple lines. The inside is yellow or
orange and this is visible around the rim of the siphons. These are tunicates feed by
drawing water in through the branchial siphon at the top, filtering out phytoplankton,
bacteria and other food particles, before expelling the water through the atrial siphon at
the side. Sometimes hydroids and algae grow on the outside of the
tunicate and nudibranchs such as Nembrotha lineolata sometimes feed on it. This species
is found in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. Its range
includes the Philippines, Indonesia and northern Australia. Its depth range is 5 to 50 m
(16 to 164 ft).

Reference

http://www.gbif.org/species/100265872

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00364827.1994.10413547