Embryos are a red-orange color. H. verrilli is eurythermal , with its period of heaviest reproduction occurring in cooler months. H. verrilli was typically found encrusting wood, shell and other hard substrata . Seagrasses as well as floating macroalgae , provide support for bryozoan colonies. In turn, bryozoans provide habitat for many species of juvenile fishes and their invertebrate prey such as polychaete worms, amphipods and copepods.
Bryozoans are ecologically important in the Indian River Lagoon due to their feeding method.
As suspension feeders, they act as living filters in the marine environment.