CreatureData

Club tunicate

Styela plicata (Lesueur, 1823)

Status not recordedother invertebrates

The club tunicate (Styela plicata) is a species in the family Styelidae, order Stolidobranchia.

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Quick facts about the club tunicate

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the club tunicate live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the club tunicate as introduced in 16 countries, and flagged as invasive in 4 of them.

  1. Australiainvasive
  2. Brazilinvasive
  3. Portugalinvasive
  4. Uruguayinvasive
  5. Angola
  6. China
  7. Greece
  8. Israel
  9. Italy
  10. Lebanon
  11. Malta
  12. Mexico
  13. South Africa
  14. South Korea
  15. United States
  16. Venezuela

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the club tunicate endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the club tunicate classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAscidiacea
  4. orderStolidobranchia
  5. familyStyelidae
  6. genusStyela
  7. SpeciesStyela plicata (Lesueur, 1823)

Synonyms Ascidia cuviera, Ascidia cuvieri, Ascidia patata, Ascidia phusca, Ascidia plicata, Phallusia sulcata, Styela gyrosa, Styela pinguis, Tethyum plicata, Tethyum plicatum

Other names and names in other languages (28)
  • Asian sea squirtEnglish
  • Club sea squirtEnglish
  • Clubbed tunicateEnglish
  • Cobblestone sea squirtEnglish
  • Folded sea squirtEnglish
  • Leathery sea squirtEnglish
  • Pacific rough sea squirtEnglish
  • Pleated sea squirtEnglish
  • Pleated tunicateEnglish
  • Solitary sea squirtEnglish
  • Wrinkled sea squirtEnglish
  • يطاطس البحرArabic
  • Πατάτα θάλασσαςGreek
  • Patata de merSpanish
  • Patate de merFrench
  • Ascidia stielaItalian
  • シロボヤJapanese
  • 만득이Korean
  • Ascídia-babosaPortuguese
  • 皺瘤海鞘Chinese
  • AscidiaSpanish
  • Ascidie blanche plisséeFrench
  • ascidie japonaiseFrench
  • ascidie plisséeFrench
  • 오만둥이Korean
  • 오만득이Korean
  • 오만디Korean
  • 주름미더덕Korean

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the club tunicate

Other species in the same genus Styela.

CompareClub tunicate vs Club tunicateClub tunicate vs Angular ascidianClub tunicate vs Stalked tunicateClub tunicate vs Divided tunicate

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Is the club tunicate an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the club tunicate as invasive in 4 countries: Australia, Brazil, Portugal and Uruguay. It lists it as introduced in 16 in all.

What kind of animal is the club tunicate?

The club tunicate (Styela plicata) belongs to the family Styelidae in the order Stolidobranchia.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Club tunicate (Styela plicata). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/styela-plicata

MLA

“Club tunicate (Styela plicata).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/styela-plicata.

BibTeX
@misc{styela_plicata_2026,
  title = {Club tunicate (Styela plicata)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/styela-plicata},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}