Fauna d'Italia, Volume 51: Ascidiacea of the European Waters

About this book

Language: English

Ascidians or sea squirts are filter-feeding marine organisms that generally populate sandy and rocky bottoms, such as rocks at the limit between high and low tide, but sometimes they can also develop on other substrates, such as other animals or plants. They live in colonies and in small pools of water they can multiply conspicuously. They can filter hundreds of litres of water daily by actively sucking it through their siphon, accumulating vanadium in particular. In some countries, gastronomic specialities are known but the focus is shifting to the pharmaceutical field with studies of the genome and the extraction of some alkaloids, and to the industrial field for some active antifouling substances. This volume deals with all known European species from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean, with particular attention to the Italian coasts, with up-to-date distribution data and clear identification information with illustrations and drawings of the various species present. This will allow marine ecologists and specialists to work on these organisms.

Contents

- Historical outline
- An overview of morphology and biology of Ascidians
- Key to the Orders and Suborders
- Clavelinidae
- Didemnidae
- Euherdmaniidae
- Holozoidae
- Placentelidae
- Polycitoridae
- Polyclinidae
- Protopolyclinidae
- Pycnoclavellidae
- Pseudodistomidae
- Ritterellidae
- Agneziidae
- Ascidiidae
- Cionidae
- Corellidae
- Diazonidae
- Octanemidae
- Perophoridae
- Plurellidae
- Hexacrobylidae
-  Molgulidae
- Pyuridae
- Styelidae

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