Notes on the Didemnidae (Ascidiacea): I. The presence of Didemnum (Leptoclinides) faeröense (Bjerkan) in the Plymouth area

Extract

Leptoclinides faeröensis Bjerkan (1905) is a little-known boreal species which has been found only in the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. I). The most northerly record is from a little south of Spitzbergen, the most southerly from 37° 08' N., off the North American coast. It occurs on the coast of Norway and in the Faeroe Islands, but it has not been reported nearer to Plymouth than these two localities. Most records are from deepish waters, though it occurs in the sublittoral zone along the Norwegian coast. It was in this zone, at Looe Island (50' 20' 24“ N., 4 °26' 53” W.) near Plymouth, that we found a specimen of this species growing on a rock about 80 cm. below O.D.—just sufficiently low for it to remain covered by a few centimetres of water at the lowest tide of the year, the equinoctial spring tide.