Abstract
In the laboratory, coronate larvae of the cellularoid bryozoan Bugula stolonifera Ryland are eaten by the barnacle Balanus eburneus Gould, whereas the larger larvae of Bugula neritina (Linnaeus) are rejected as food. We tested the potential effects of this differential predation in the field by comparing settlement of the two bryozoan species on shells of living and dead barnacles at three scales: among barnacles, among barnacle wall plates, and within wall plates. In neither species was there a significant difference in overall settlement density between living and dead barnacle shells, but the spatial distributions of both species were influenced by barnacle-feeding activities at the smallest scale. On living barnacles, settlement densities were generally lower on the rostral and carinal plates than on the lateral and carinolateral plates, but this pattern did not occur on dead barnacles. Because rejected larvae of B. neritina were ejected beyond the rostral plate, the same settlement distribution occurred for both vulnerable and invulnerable larval species. Thus, differential predation did not translate into species-specific settlement distributions.
Published Version
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