Summary

Polycarpa papillata is a common tunicate that is located in many environments with a wide species range (Kott, 1985; Butler and Connolly, 1996; Rocha et.al 2012).  They are filter feeders making them important to ecosystem health and nutrient cycling as they remove sediments and other suspended particles from the water column and incorporate them back into the food-web of the system (Carballo and Naranjo, 2002; Rocha et.al 2012). They are also important indicators of bioivasion due to the fact that they have a short lives planktonic larval stage (Rocha et.al 2012).  Body morphology in the adult is highly variable which makes them cryptogenic; the most reliable way to identify P.papillata is by the internal anatomy which is highly conserved among morphologies (Kott,1985; Castilla et.al 2000; Rocha et.al 2012).