Laomedea calceolifera
Laomedea calceolifera is a sessile hydroid without a planktonic medusa stage. It was originally described
from the British Isles and is native to the Northeast Atlantic where it ranges from the White and Barents
Seas to the Cape Verde Islands and throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It is considered
cryptogenic in the Western Atlantic. Introduced populations have been collected from both sides of the
Pacific including California, China and Russia. This hydroid settles and grows on stones, seagrasses,
seaweeds, docks, buoys, and pilings. It is a common and widespread ship and dock fouling organism, but
specific impacts have not been reported.
Scientific Name and Authority
Laomedea calceolifera Hincks, 1871
Description:
Laomedea calceolifera is not known to have a medusa stage. It forms colonies up to 30 mm high, with
erect stems arising from smooth, but twisting stolons. Branches are alternating left and right, and above
each branching point are several rings. The hydrothecae are born on pedicels with multiple rings. They
are deep and bell-shaped, with a smooth, distally flared margin. The male and female gonothecae are
dissimilar when mature. The female gonothecae are club-shaped, with a sub-terminal curving aperture on
one side. The male gonotheca are cylindrical, narrower than the female, and are elongate with a terminal
aperture (description from: Bouillon et al. 2004; Vervoort 2006).
Taxonomic Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:
Cnidaria
Class:
Hydrozoa
Subclass: Hydroidolina
Order:
Leptothecatae
Family:
Campanulariidae
Genus:
Laomedea
Species:
calceolifera
Synonyms:
Campanularia calceolifera (Hincks, 1871)
Eulaomedea calceolifera (Rees & Thursfield, 1965)
Laomedea calceolifera (Stechow, 1923)
Lomedea calceolifera (Boero & Bouillon, 1993)
Potentially Misidentified Species:
Laomedea flexuosa
This hydroid is widely distirbuted in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, and has been introduced into
the Sea of Japan, in Russia (Chalypigna 1992; Bouillon et al. 2004; Vervoort 2006).
NEMESIS Bioregion Distribution:
First Non-native North American Record: 2004
First Non-native West Coast Record: 2004
Invasion History (Paul's Version):
Laomedea calceolifera was originally described from the British Isles, and is now known from locations
around the globe (Fraser 1944; Vervoort 2006; Appeltans et al. 2011). In the Northeast Atlantic, its
presumed native region, it ranges from the White and Barents Sea (Linko, 1911; Kudelin, 1914;
Antsulevich 1987, cited by Vervoort 2006), to Spain, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands (Vervoort 2006),
and throughout the Mediterranean into the Black Sea (Bouillon et al. 2004). It is considered cryptogenic
in the Western Atlantic, where it occurs from Gaspe, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Long Island Sound
(Fraser 1944; MIT Sea Grant 2003), and on the coast of Brazil (Vanucci 1949, cited by Migotto et al.
2002). Introduced populations have been collected in the Northeast (California) and Northwest (China
and Russia) Pacific.
West CoastIn the Northeast Pacific, Laomedea calceolifera was collected in San Francisco Bay, California (CA) in a
2004 rapid assessment survey, at Richmond and Coyote Point Marinas (Cohen and Carlton 2005; Mills et
al., in Carlton 2007). This hydroid has also been reported off Orange County, in southern California, but
no reproductive structures were seen and the identification is tentative. A specimen, was identified as L.
calceolifera by Dr. Sofia Stepanjants of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ljubenkov, in SCAMIT 2003),
but until the identification is verified, we have not included it on our distribution map.
Elsewhere in the WorldLaomedea calceolifera has been introduced to the Northwest Pacific, where it was first collected in
Shandong, China, in the Yellow Sea (Chen-sheng Kao, cited by Chalypigna 1992); and later found in Peter
the Great Bay, in the vicinity of Vladivostok, Russia on docks and the hull of a boat (Chalypigna 1992). It
has been found on a ship's hull in South Africa, but it is not established there (Millard 1975).
General:
Laomedea calceolifera is a sessile hydrozoan which lacks a planktonic medusa stage. Colonies grow on a
solid substrate, with polyps arising from a creeping stolon. The polyps form bushy structures, with many
hydranths, whose tentacles capture zooplankton. The polyps produce gonophores, which produce either
eggs or sperm. The egg develops into a ciliated non-feeding planula larva which is released into the water
column (Bouillon et al. 2004; Vervoort 2006). <br/><br/>
Planulae of Laomedea calceolifera settle and grow on stones, seagrasses, seaweeds, docks, buoys, and
pilings (Fraser 1944). It is also known from ships’ hulls and fouling plates (Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution 1952; Chalypigna 1992). Laomedea calceolifera grows in cold-temperate to subtropical,
climates, and in the Black and Mediterranean Sea (Bouillon et al. 2004) where salinities range from 18 to
38 PSU.
Consumers:
Nudibranchs
Food:
zoooplankton, epibenthos
Habitats:
General Habitat
Marinas & Docks
General Habitat
Vessel Hull
Salinity Range
Mesohaline (5-18 PSU)
Salinity Range
Polyhaline (18-30 PSU)
Salinity Range
Euhaline (30-40 PSU)
Tidal Range
Subtidal
Vertical Habitat
Epibenthic
Tolerances and Life History Parameters:
Broad Temperature
Range
Cold temperate-Subtropical
Broad Salinity Range
Polyhaline-Euhaline
Impacts (Paul's Version):
The hydroid Laomedea calceolifera is a common and widespread ship and dock fouling organism, but
specific impacts have not been reported.
General Citations:
Altuna, Alvaro (2007) Bathymetric distribution patterns and biodiversity of benthic
Medusozoa (Cnidaria) in the Bay of Biscay(north-eastern Atlantic)., Journal of the
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 87: 681-694
Appeltans, W. et al. (2011) World Registry of Marine Species.
http://www.marinespecies.org/index.php
Bouillon, Jean; Medel, Maria Dolores; Pagès, Francesc; Gili, Josep-Maria; Boero,
Ferdinando ; Gravili, Cinzia (2004) Fauna of the Mediterranean Hydrozoa., Scientia
Marina 68: 5-438
Carlton, James T. (Ed.) (2007) The Light and Smith Manual: Intertidal invertebrates
from Central California to Oregon., University of California Press, Berkeley. Pp.
Chalypigna, S. F. (1992) [On the introduction of two hydroid species, Laomdea
flexuosa and L. calceolifera to the Sea of Japan.], Zoologicheskii Zhurrnal 71: 5-9
Cohen, Andrew N. and 10 authors (2005) Rapid assessment shore survey for exotic
species in San Francisco Bay - May 2004, San Francisco Estuary Institute, Oakland. Pp.
Farrapeira, Cristiane Maria Rocha; Tenório, Deusinete de Oliveira ; do Amaral,
Fernanda Duar (2011) Vessel biofouling as an inadvertent vector of benthic
invertebrates occurring in Brazil, Marine Pollution Bulletin 62: 832-839
Fraser, C. McLean (1944) Hydroids of the Atlantic Coast of North America, In: (Eds.).
. University of Toronto Press. Toronto. Pp. 1-441
Haydar, Deniz (2012) What is natural? The scale of cryptogenesis in the North
Atlantic Ocean, Diversity and Distributions 18: 101-110
Huang, Zongguo (Ed.) (2001) Marine species and their distribution in China's Seas.,
Krieger, Malabar, FL. Pp.
Ljubenkov, John (2011) Laomedea calceolifera (Hincks, 1871), SCAMIT
Newsletter 22: 7-8
Mead, A.; Carlton, J. T.; Griffiths, C. L. Rius, M. (2011b) Introduced and
cryptogenic marine and estuarine species of South Africa, Journal of Natural History3940: 2463-2524
Migotto, A.E. (1996) Benthic shallow-water hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) of the coast
of Sao Sebastiao, Brazil, including a checklist of Brazilian hydroids,Zoologische
Verhandelingen 306: 3-125
Migotto, Alvaro E.; Marques, Antonio C.; Morandini, André C.; da Silveira, Fábio
L. (2007) Checklist of the Cnidaria Medusozoa of Brazil, Biota Neotropica 2: 1-31
Millard, N. A. H. (1975) Monograph on the Hydroida of southern Africa, Annals of the
South African Museum 68: 1-513
MIT Sea Grant (2003-2008) Introduced and cryptogenic species of the North Atlantic.
http://massbay.mit.edu/exoticspecies/exoticmaps/introduced.html
Vervoort, W. (2006) Leptolida (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) collected during the CANCAP and
Mauritania-II expeditions of the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, The
Netherlands [Anthoathecata, various families of Leptothecata and
addenda].,Zoologische Verhandlingen Leiden 80-1: 181-318
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution United States; Navy Dept. Bureau of
Ships. (1952) Chapter 10: Species recorded from fouling., United States Naval
Institute., Washington, D.C.. Pp. 165-206
Zvyaginstev, A. Yu.; Radashevsky, V. I.; Ivin, V. V.; Kashin, I. A.; Gorodkov, A.
N. (2011) Nonindigenous species in the far-eastern seas of Russia, Russian Journal of
Biological Invasions 2: 164-182