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Bishop, JDD, Wood, CA and Baldock, L 2025 The first record of Didemnum pseudovexillum (Ascidiacea, Didemnidae) in the UK. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 105. 10.1017/S0025315425100854
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract/Summary
The colonial ascidian Didemnum vexillum (Carpet Sea Squirt) is globally established as a non-native species with diverse negative impacts. A second Didemnum species, D. pseudovexillum, was described in 2020, living alongside D. vexillum and virtually indistinguishable from it in external appearance. It is not known whether this second species has environmental and economic impacts similar to those of D. vexillum, nor whether it should be regarded as native or non-native in Europe. Early records were from four sites, all in or adjacent to marinas, in north-west France, the Mediterranean coast of Spain and the east coast of Italy. Here, an occurrence of D. pseudovexillum in a seagrass bed in south-west England is reported, identified by both sequencing of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI) and examination of internal morphology. Separate studies collected and identified specimens of D. vexillum/pseudovexillum from 11 marinas on the English and Welsh coasts, and D. pseudovexillum was not found amongst these. Only two pre-2020 didemnid COI sequences now referrable to D. pseudovexillum have been found in the BOLD System and GenBank databases (these records being from Mediterranean Spain in 2013); this suggests that the species is a relatively recent addition to the European fauna from an unrecognized existing range
| Item Type: | Publication - Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Keywords: | biofouling, cryptic species, cryptogenic species, non-indigenous, non-native |
| Subjects: | Ecology and Environment Marine Sciences |
| Divisions: | Marine Biological Association of the UK > Coastal Ecology |
| Depositing User: | Ms Kristina Hixon |
| Date made live: | 12 Mar 2026 09:55 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Mar 2026 09:55 |
| URI: | https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/10584 |
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