Bugula neritina Image 5
A closer detail of the same colony, showing the white ovicells and lophophores.
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Bugula neritina Image 4
Detail of the mature portion of a colony from San Francisco Bay. Note the numerous white, globular ovicells, and the lophophores (crowns of feeding tentacles) extending from the zooecia.
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Bugula neritina Image 3-from SFBay, branching
A
Bugula neritina colony from San Francisco Bay, showing branching pattern.
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Bugula neritina Image 2
A smaller
Bugula neritina colony from San Francisco Bay. The light tan organism to the left is another species of
Bugula, and the red-orange organism below that is
Watersipora subtorquata, another exotic
bryozoan species.
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Bugula neritina Key Image
A large
Bugula neritina colony from San Francisco Bay.
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Bugula neritina Linnaeus, 1758
Bugula neritina is a colonial animal that grows in upright, bushy,
branching tufts, up to 15 cm or so in height, that are often mistaken for
a seaweed. They are usually a dark red-purple or purple-brown, though occasionally
they are a dull, dark red. Some of the details described below can be seen
with a hand lens; others require a microscope.
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Balanus amphitrite 5-B improvisus
Balanus improvisus, an exotic, unstriped, smooth-walled barnacle that has become established in San Francisco Bay.
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Balanus amphitrite Image 4
Another
Balanus glandula with strongly ridged walls, flanked by an adult
amphitrite on the left and a juvenile
amphitrite on the right, on a high intertidal rock in San Francisco Bay.
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Balanus amphitrite Image 3
A native barnacle (
Balanus glandula) flanked by two
Balanus amphitrite.
Balanus amphitrite’s shell is striped and smooth or sometimes shallowly ridged, while glandula’s is stripeless and often strongly ridged (as here).
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Balanus amphitrite Image 2
A side view of another
Balanus amphitrite from San Francisco Bay, with a juvenile growing on it on the right.
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Cryptosula pallasiana
Bugula neritina 
Watersipora subtorquata
