(Variable Crust Bryozoan)
Size
Recognition Characters
This is heavily calcified encrusting bryozoan. The thickness of the growth is dependent upon the age of the colony. Multilaminar encrustations of 1 cm thick are common. The frontal surface of the zoecium (secreted exoskeleton housing of individual zooids) is porous with a wide semicircular aperture and proximal sinus. Also with single avicularia on right or left side of aperture sinus.
Color
Typically dark brick red with orange-red growing margins, but can be white, pink, or orange.
Habitat & Depth
Estuarine habitats on hard substrates such as pilings, hulls, and coral rubble, etc. Also bays and lagoons, tropical and temperate reefs.
Distribution at GRNMS
Abundant. Encrust the undersides of rocks.
Geographic Range
Probably worldwide in warm temperate-subtropical seas (reported from West Africa, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, South Australia, New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Coast of North America, East Coast North America through Caribbean to Brazil, and Mediterranean) where it is invasive in many of these regions
Behavior & Notes
S. errata assumes the shape of whatever it overgrows. This species may form heavy knobby incrustations on flexible surfaces such as algae or worm tubes, turning them into solid, sometimes erect branching structures.
Synonyms
Maturo 1957