This encrusting colonial ascidian is found on rocky surfaces. In South Australia, it is commonly a piebald black and white colour, although it occasionally resembles its Eastern states counterparts and is orange/brown and white. Each system has a cluster of central apertures, with the other aperture for each zooid located in a circle around the central cluster. As a member of Polycitoridae, there are no large shared cloacal apertures. The dark (orange or black) pigment is focused on the central cluster, and flares out towards each second aperture, forming a pattern of starbursts on the surface of the colony. It is very similar in appearance to some species of Distaplia, particularly D. viridis, but species for that genus do have a large common aperture in the centre of each system.
