Invasion History
First Non-native North American Tidal Record:First Non-native West Coast Tidal Record:
First Non-native East/Gulf Coast Tidal Record:
General Invasion History:
None
North American Invasion History:
Description
We are tentatively treating "Bowerbankia gracilis" as a single species of North Atlantic origin, native to both coasts, but introduced to other ocean regions. It was described from Point Judith RI in 1855 (Leidy 1855) and now appears to be fairly continuously distributed from Florida and Spain to Greenland. However, a trans-Atlantic invasion cannot be ruled out. Animals identified as "B. gracilis" over its wide present range could also represent members of a species complex. According to Winston (pers.comm.), Northeast Pacfic "B. gracilis" are probably a separate species (Winston, personal communication; Soule et al., in Carlton 2007)., and are excluded from our database.
Taxonomy
Taxonomic Tree
| Kingdom: | Animalia | |
| Phylum: | Bryozoa | |
| Class: | Gymnolaemata | |
| Order: | Ctenostomata | |
| Suborder: | Carnosa | |
| Superfamily: | Vesicularioidea | |
| Family: | Vesiculariidae | |
| Genus: | Bowerbankia | |
| Species: | gracilis |
Synonyms
Bowerbankia caudata (Hincks, 1880)
Valkeria caudata (Hincks, 1877)
Vesicularia gracilis (Verrill and Smith, 1874)
Valkeria caudata (Hincks, 1877)
Vesicularia gracilis (Verrill and Smith, 1874)
Potentially Misidentified Species
Ecology
Food:
Phytoplankton
Trophic Status:
Suspension Feeder
SusFedHabitats
| General Habitat | Grass Bed | None |
| General Habitat | Coarse Woody Debris | None |
| General Habitat | Oyster Reef | None |
| General Habitat | Marinas & Docks | None |
| General Habitat | Rocky | None |
| General Habitat | Vessel Hull | None |
| Tidal Range | Subtidal | None |
| Tidal Range | Low Intertidal | None |
| Vertical Habitat | Epibenthic | None |
Tolerances and Life History Parameters
| Minimum Salinity (‰) | 10 | Field data, Chesapeake Bay (Osburn 1944) |
| Maximum Salinity (‰) | 35 | Field data, Mediterranean Sea lagoons (Occhipinti Ambrogi and d'Hondt 1981), but may tolerate higher salinites. |
General Impacts
Regional Distribution Map
Non-native
Native
Cryptogenic
Failed
Leaflet | Tiles © Esri — Sources: GEBCO, NOAA, CHS, OSU, UNH, CSUMB, National Geographic, DeLorme, NAVTEQ, and Esri
Occurrence Map
Leaflet | Tiles © Esri — Source: Esri, i-cubed, USDA, USGS, AEX, GeoEye, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, UPR-EGP, and the GIS User Community
References
Leidy, Joseph (1855) Contributions towards a knowledge of the marine invertebrate fauna, of the coasts of Rhode Island and New Jersey, Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia <missing volume>: 135-151Maturo, Frank J. S., Jr. (1957) A study of the Bryozoa of Beaufort, North Carolina and vicinity, Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 72(1): 11-68
Osburn, Raymond C. (1944) A survey of the Bryozoa of Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Publications 63: 1-55
Waeschenbach, Andrea; Vieira, Leandro M.; Reverter-Gil, Oscar; Souto-Derungs, Javier; Nascimento, Karine B.; Fehlauer-Ale, Karin H. (2015) A phylogeny of Vesiculariidae (Bryozoa, Ctenostomata) supports synonymization of three genera and reveals possible cryptic diversity, Zoologica Scripta <missing volume>: <missing location>
Winston, Judith E. (1977) Distribution and ecology of estuarine ectoprocts: a critical review., Chesapeake Science 18(1): 34-57