Description:
Watersipora subovoidea is a calcified, encrusting bryozoan. Its colonies are variable in appearance, and may be unilaminar and encrusting, to bilaminar and frilled. Living specimens are brownish orange to black. Polypides are bright orange-red. Zooids are large, and irregularly shaped, measuring an average of 0.03 X 0.015 inches in size. The frontal surface is curved and evenly perforated by large pores. The operculum is generally dark brown to black. No avicularia are present. Average lophophore diameter is approximately 0.025 inches. An average of 21 tentacles is present on the horseshoe-shaped lophophore which surrounds the mouth.

Habitat:
Watersipora subovoidea is one of the most abundant bryozoan species in the IRL and along the coast of Florida. Typical habitats include seagrasses, mangrove roots, drift algae, oyster reef, docks, pilings, boat hulls and man-made debris.  W. subovoidea is common on the rocks of breakwaters, and is the only encrusting bryozoan that grows on "wormrock," the cemented sand tubes of Phragmatopoma lapidosa, the reef-building sabellarid.

Range:
Watersipora subovoidea is cosmopolitan in warm waters. In the western Atlantic, it ranges from Florida to Brazil.  W. subovoidea is the most common encrusting bryozoan along the coastline.