Cribrilina annulata (Fabricius, 1780)

General description: 

Cribrilina annulata is an encrusting bryozoan. Colonies develop as small round patches that are pink in colour. The colonies rarely exceed 200 zooids in size. Autozooids are oval and convex. They range in size from 0.4-0.7 by 0.3-0.34 mm. Four, or occasional three, short spines are present distally.

The species is able to colonise stones and shells. It is especially abundant on fronds of Laminaria kelp and small red algae. It ranges from the lower shore to shallow subtidal waters.

Cribrilina annulata is a boreal-arctic species known from Greenland, Spitzbergen and Alaska. It extends south into the eastern Atlantic and the North Sea. In the British Isles it has been recorded from the coasts of Northumberland, the Western Isles and the Isles of Man, and formerly (1880) from Cornwall.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith