CIRRATULIDAE

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 : 2477

Family CIRRATULIDAE

Dodecaceria fewkesi Berkeley and Berkeley, 1954 Introduced

This polychaete constructs large, greyish, rock-like structures composed of individual tubes of hundreds of jet black worms, each of which has a long pair of feeding tentacles (prostomial palps). Behind these lie four or five pairs of prominent elongate branchiae. It is thought that colonies are derived asexually from a single individual and hence retain the sex of the founder. The species (identification by James A. Blake, January 2008) was first observed in Table Bay Docks in 2007, where it formed regularly spaced, fist-sized colonies on a vertical concrete wharf. A strong black pigment was released when the colonies were handled and preserved. Dodecaceria fewkesi is native to the Pacific coast of North America, ranging from British Columbia to southern California, where it can form massive sheets of rock-like colonies more than one metre in length ( Abbott and Reish 1980). It occurs in the “middle intertidal zone on protected rocky shores and dock pilings” ( Abbott and Reish 1980), typically in fully marine situations (J. T. Carlton, personal observations) on open coasts, not in estuaries or bays. Its presence on harbour pilings ( Abbott and Reish 1980), presumably in such sites as the marine pilings of Monterey Bay wharves in central California, however, suggests possible interfaces with ship-mediated transport. Reminiscent of Balanus glandula , Dodecaceria is a species capable of living on outer coasts as well, and we therefore predict that it will make its way out of Table Bay in due course.