Papery burnupena(Burnupena papyracea)
Noduler bryzoan(Alcyonidium spp)

Subject: Re: range extension?
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:17:18 +0200
From: George & Margo Branch
To: Georgina Jones

Hello Georgina: You are correct: this is a Burnupena with Alcyonidium attached (and the lophophores extended as you say). The only slight hesitation I have is that there is another (rare) Burnupena that also has a coating of Alcyonidium. No-one has ever checked to see if the 'other' Alcyonidium is a different species, or just the same species living on another Burnupena. I can't offhand remember the species of Burnupena, but I'll go back to the original paper by Yvonne Dempster and check if it could be that. It'll have to wait until I get up to UCT as that's where I have the paper. But I must say that the shape looks like B. papyracea.

George & Margo Branch
Two Oceans
(A guide to the marine life of Southern Africa)

Hi George 

Johan got a question about the animal on this whelk as you can see he confused it with a hydroid - I said it's the papery burnupena with the nodular bryozoan on it and the fuzziness is the feeding lophophores,but according to Two Oceans, the whelk only goes as far as Cape Agulhas.  What do you think?

Best wishes

Georgina Jones
(A field guide to the Marine Animals of the Cape Peninsula)