''Bugulina flabellata'' is a species of

bryozoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a l ...

n belonging to the family

Bugulidae Bugulidae is a family of bryozoans belonging to the order Cheilostomatida. Genera The World Register of Marine Species lists the following genera:- *'' Beanodendria'' d'Hondt & Gordon, 1996 *'' Bicellariella'' Levinsen, 1909 *'' Bicellarina'' L ...

. It is found in shallow water in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Description

''Bugulina flabellata'' is a colonial bryozoan forming small clumps up to high with a characteristic cone or fan-shape. The fronds have up to eight

dichotomous A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultan ...

branches with square tips. Each

zooid A zooid or zoöid is a single animal that is part of a colonial animal. This lifestyle has been adopted by animals from separate unrelated taxa. Zooids are multicellular; their structure is similar to that of other solitary animals. The zooi ...

bears two or three short spines. Colonies are dark buff when living and greyish when dried up.

Distribution and habitat

''Bugulina flabellata'' has a wide distribution in shallow temperate waters in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It has also been recorded off the coasts of Brazil, Mauritius and Australia. It grows on rock surfaces or the undersides of boulders, on stones and on shells, at depths down to about .

Ecology

Colonies of bryozoans grow by

budding Budding or blastogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction in which a new organism develops from an outgrowth or bud due to cell division at one particular site. For example, the small bulb-like projection coming out from the yeast cell is know ...

from a single zooid known as an ancestrula. ''Bugulina flabellata'' overwinters as a dormant holdfast or an ancestrula. In spring new fronds develop and there are two generations of ephemeral fronds during the summer and autumn. ''Bugulina flabellata'' is a

protogynous hermaphrodite Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs when the individual changes its sex at some point in its life. In particular, ...

, that is, each zooid starts life as a female but later becomes a male. Embryos start to be produced soon after the individual zooids form, and there may be several stages of embryo present in the colony at any one time. Sperm is emitted through pores in the tips of the tentacles and is drawn into the recipient zooids by the feeding tentacles. The developing embryos are brooded in a brood pouch; when expelled into the sea in due course, they have a short larval life and do not disperse far. ''Bugulina flabellata'' seems specially adapted to grow and reproduce fast during the period in summer when there is an abundance of

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

. ''Bugulina flabellata'' is one of the species that form a bryozoan "turf", along with ''

Bicellariella ciliata ''Bicellariella ciliata'' is a species of bryozoan belonging to the family Bugulidae. It is found in shallow water on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Indo-Pacific region. Description ''Bicellariella ciliata'' is a ...

'' and ''

Bugulina turbinata ''Bugulina turbinata'' is a species of bryozoan belonging to the family Bugulidae. It is found in shallow water in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Description ''Bugulina turbinata'' is a colonial bryozoan that forms s ...

'', on steep or vertical, moderately wave-exposed rock, round the coasts of Britain just below the

littoral zone The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

; this habitat tends to be dominated by aggregations of the jewel anemone ''

Corynactis viridis ''Corynactis viridis'', the jewel anemone, is a brightly coloured anthozoan similar in body form to a sea anemone or a scleractinian coral polyp, but in the order Corallimorpharia. It is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Medite ...

'' and the cup coral ''

Caryophyllia smithii ''Caryophyllia smithii'', the Devonshire cup coral, is a species of solitary coral in the family Caryophylliidae. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. There are shallow and deep-water forms wh ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q41163052 Bryozoans Fauna of the Atlantic Ocean Fauna of the Mediterranean Sea Animals described in 1848