• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Bryozoa
  • Class: Gymnolaemata
  • Order: Cheilostomatida
  • Suborder: Neocheilostomatina
  • Infraorder: Ascophora
  • Superfamily: Celleporoidea
  • Family: Phidoloporidae
  • Scientific name: Reteporella beaniana
  • Norwegian: nettmosdyr

Characteristics:

This is a colonial species. It builds white or pink colonies with the shape of a cup, a tree or a folded sheet. It rarely grow larger than 3 cm of height and 5 cm wide. Sea slugs and sea spiders are often seen grazing on the R. beaniana.

Habitat:

There are three species of Reteporella spp. living along the coast of Norway. They usually cannot be identified from photography alone. They prefer hard substrate and current exposed locations, usually deeper than 20 meters.

Distribution:

It is registered along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, from Spain to Norway.