The specific name occulta means "tailless" and refers to the tunicate's larva, which lacks the tail found in some other species in the genus Molgula.

The rather stiff tunic wall is completely coated with shell fragments, mud particles and grains of sand.

[3] Molgula occulta is found in the north eastern Atlantic and its range extends from Norway and Sweden to the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea.

[1] In the British Isles, it is fairly common on west, south and east facing coasts, on the lower shore or in the shallow subtidal zone where it buries itself in sand or mud with just its siphons protruding.

[6] Molgula occulta hatches into a tailless larva from the chorion in twelve hours and develops four ampullae or dilatations immediately before metamorphosing into a juvenile.