'Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi'
Abstract
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
