Bicellariella ciliata

Bicellariella ciliata has a widespread distribution. It occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from Norway to South Africa, in the western Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the Indo-Pacific region. It grows in rocky locations such as vertical walls exposed to moderate currents, at depths between 10 and 30 m (30 and 100 ft). It often grows as an epibiont on shells, on hydrozoans and on other bryozoans.^[2]

Like other bryozoans, Bicellariella ciliata is a filter feeder, consuming diatoms and other small organic particles which it catches with the ever-active tentacles of its lophophore. Colonies have both male and female zooids; reproduction mainly takes place in late March and April, giving rise to planktonic larvae in May and June. These settle on the seabed in August and undergo metamorphosis into single zooids which will found new colonies which will overwinter. This species is more noticeable in winter and spring than it is in mid-summer.^[2] Bicellariella ciliata is one of the bryozoans on which the nudibranch Antiopella cristata,^[4] and the nudibranch Polycera faeroensis feeds.^[2]