CRYPTOSULIDAE, Vigneaux, 1949

Mead, A., Carlton, J. T., Griffiths, C. L. & Rius, M., 2011, Introduced and cryptogenic marine and estuarine species of South Africa, Journal of Natural History 45 (39 - 40), pp. 2463-2524 : 2501

Family CRYPTOSULIDAE

Cryptosula pallasiana (Moll, 1803) Introduced (= Lepralia pallasiana )

We tentatively admit this European fouling bryozoan ( Ryland and Hayward 1977) to the list of non-native species in South Africa, although there is little doubt that this morphotaxon is a global species complex, possibly involving a combination of regional endemic species, upon which ship-fouling introductions have been added. Millard (1952) appears to be the first to report it from South Africa (as Lepralia pallasiana ), based upon collections from 1947 to 1949 in Table Bay Harbour. Henschel et al. (1990) report it as a fouling organism in Simon’s Town, on the west side of False Bay (southwest coast), in 1979. It is doubtless widespread in harbours and estuaries around South Africa and has also been reported from the west coast at Saldanha Bay (identification by Wayne Florence, SAM: see Awad et al. 2005). Since its description in the early nineteenth century, it has been reported from ports around the world ( Gordon and Mawatari 1992). Winston (1982) noted that the late Ernst Marcus had speculated as early as the 1940s that its “distribution may be related to proximity to shipping lanes.” As with Conopeum seurati , the Bugula species and Watersipora subtorquata , it would be instructive to examine bryozoan-covered hard substrata (molluscs, tubeworms, barnacles, oysters and so forth) in museum collections for earlier records to establish the earliest specimens collected.