Electra pilosa

A variety of other amino acid- or peptide-based cues also induce larval settlement and metamorphosis. For example, larvae of the sand dollar Dendraster excentricus settle and metamorphose in response to (1) a peptide-based cue from sand associated with adults, and (2) to water conditioned by adults.135 137 The nudibranch Adalaria proxima is induced to settle and metamorphose by a water-soluble-peptide-based cue from its bryozoan host Electra pilosa.138 139 A surface-associated peptide inducer has been proposed for the tube worm Phragmatopoma lapidosa californica140 but its role as a natural inducer remains to be defined. 

Other opisthobranch molluscs settle and metamorphose in response to prey items. The dorid nudibranch Adalaria proximo feeds on the cheilostome bryozoan Electra pilosa. Soluble cues secreted by live colonies of the bryozoan, but not dead, frozen, or sonicated E. pilosa, induced metamorphosis.151 Ultrafiltration showed that the active inducer is less than 1000 Da in size.43 Trypsin eliminated the inductive cue Lambert et al.48 suggested that the active inducer is a small, arginine- or lysine-containing peptide. 

Inhibited growth in the bryozoan Electra pilosa possibly due to Phaeocystis. 

Jebram D (1980) Prospection for a sufficient nutrition for the cosmopolitic marine bryozoan Electra pilosa (Linnaeus). Zool Jahrb Syst 107 368-390... 

Recently, a contact allergy that developed in a fisherman was reported it was brought on by Electra pilosa (a bryozoan) and Sargassum muticum, a brown seaweed which has been present in European seas for the last 15 years and has an explosive growth during March and October (Jeanmougin et al. 1987)-... 

The bryozoans (moss animals or sea mats) responsible for contact dermatitis are mainly Alcyonidium gela-tinosum, A. hirsutum, A. topsenti, Flustra foliacea and Electra pilosa (Bonnevie 1948 Audebert and Lam-oureux 1978 Jeanmougin et al. 1983, 1987)- A- g l -tinosum is widespread in the Northern hemisphere and, in particular, in the Atlantic, the Baltic, the North Sea, the Arctic and the Channel. 

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