Occurrence Of Ascidian Molgula Sp. From The Coastal Waters Of Visakhapatnam, India

Ascidians referred to as ‘sea squirts’ constitute a major component of biofouling community in coastal waters. Knowledge of diversity of ascidians in the waters around India is very less. Perusal of literature by Renganathan (1990), Venkat et al. (1995), Meenakshi and Senthamarai (2004, 2006) and Meenakshi (2005) indicate that there are about 300 species of ascidians belonging to 10 families and 38 genera reported so far from Indian waters comprising both colonial and solitary forms. Bhavanarayana and Ganapati (1971) studied the ascidian species among pelagic tunicates from the inshore waters of Visakhapatnam.