'Hydroid' Rolls

[chris butterworth]

I called into the shore at home on Saturday ( just in case there were any migrants around ) and the sand was covered with 'Hydroid' Rolls, bunches of hydroids that have been ripped up by the recent storms and left on the beach. I took a couple home and disentangled them in a bucket of water, got out the microscope and got stuck in. The ones I did manage to ID were :-

Bougainvillia ramosa
Obelia dichotoma
O. geniculata
O. longissima
Filellum serpens
Halecium beanii
H. halecinum
Abietinaria abietina
Diphasia pinaster
Hydrallmania falcata
Sertularia cupressina ( Whiteweed)
Thiuaria thuja ( Bottlebrush Hydroid )
Nemertesia antennina

I've just got to figure out a way of photographing stuff through the microscope now as those I did take just look like buff coloured bits of thread . It's always amazing what you can find washed up - the difficulty comes when you try to ID them

Chris

[goosey]

Are Hydroid rolls those things that look like clumps of grass and straw I some times see on the beach?

This is what I often see, is it one or if not, what should I be looking for?

[chris butterworth]

Originally Posted by goosey

Are Hydroid rolls those things that look like clumps of grass and straw I some times see on the beach?

This is what I often see, is it one or if not, what should I be looking for?

Hydroid rolls are distinct rolls, rather sausage-like, of much finer material than grass / straw. The commonest species Sertularia cupressina is often quite noticable tangled aroud the rest. The rolls are often found left by the receding tide, isolated halfway up the beach.

Chris

[goosey]

Oh, thats not very good then .

[goosey]

Try again .
Are these Hydroid rolls? I found two small bundles this morning as the tide was going out, they were about 2m apart and were the only ones I saw.

Roll 1.



Roll 2.


This was an interesting plant which was part of roll 2.

[chris butterworth]

Congratulations Goosey. The 'plant' in roll 2 is actually a colony of Whiteweed Sertularia cupressina .

Chris

[goosey]

That is great, I am really pleased.
Fancy that being a colony, I just thought it was a sea weed of some type. It would have looked so lovely waving around with the motion of the sea.
I wish I had brought the whole hydroid roll home untangled it and tried to ID them like you did - next time!
There again I would be worried in case I brought a living creature along with it.