Salp

Salp
A chain of salps near the surface in the Red Sea
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Tunicata
Class: Thaliacea
Order: Salpida
Family: Salpidae
Lahille, 1888
Subfamilies, genera and species[1]

See text

Circular ring cluster of pelagic salps off Aorangaia Island, New Zealand
Salp chain off Zanzibar
Another salp chain off Oregon
Pegea confederata on a 1995 stamp from Azerbaijan

A salp (plural salps, also known colloquially as “sea grape”) or salpa (plural salpae or salpas[2]) is a barrel-shaped, planktonic tunicate in the family Salpidae. It moves by contracting, thereby pumping water through its gelatinous body; it is one of the most efficient examples of jet propulsion in the animal kingdom.[3] The salp strains the pumped water through its internal feeding filters, feeding on phytoplankton.

  1. ^ "Salpidae". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  2. ^ "salp - Definitions from Dictionary.com". Retrieved 2008-09-28.; Peter Forsskål, in introducing the genus Salpa from waters off Yemen (1763, publication 1775), gave no derivation for his word; the English salp first appeared in 1835 (OED, "salp")
  3. ^ Bone, Q. (1983). "Jet propulsion in salps (Tunicata: Thaliacea)". Journal of Zoology. 201 (4): 481–506. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1983.tb05071.x.