Bugula neritina (Linnaeus, 1758)

Fig. 8 A–B

Sertularia neritina Linnaeus, 1758: 815 .

Bugula neritina – Ryland & Hayward 1977: 162, fig. 78.

Material

MALAYSIA: MSL BRY014, Batu Uban, Penang, attached to float hanging from fishing jetty.

Description

Colony erect, weakly mineralized, forming a luxuriant bush comprising bifurcating branches with zooids in two alternating rows opening on one side of branch, purple-brown in colour.Autozooids slender, about 0.48–0.56 mm long by 0.15–0.18 mm wide; opesia occupying almost all of frontal surface, squared-off distally; operculum absent; gymnocyst forming sides and back walls of zooids; spines and cryptocyst lacking; ovicell globular, large and prominent (Fig. 8B), attached to inner distal angle of zooid by a short peduncle. Avicularia lacking.

Remarks

Considerable attention has been focused on Bugula neritina as a source of the natural product bryostatin. Molecular studies have recently shown that morphologically defined, B. neritina is a complex comprising at least three separate species (Fehlauer-Ale et al. 2014).The complex is very widely distributed in tropical, subtropical and even temperate waters, and is an important fouling taxon dispersed anthropogenically (e.g., Ryland et al. 2011).