Hydroides elegans (Haswell 1883)
- Dataset
- The fouling serpulids (Polychaeta: Serpulidae) from United States coastal waters: an overview
- Rank
- SPECIES
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Annelida
- class
- Polychaeta
- order
- Sabellida
- family
- Serpulidae
- genus
- Hydroides
- species
- Hydroides elegans
biology_ecology
Ecology Intertidal to sublittoral (10 m). Some records off California (additional material from LACMNH) have questionable depth data (110 – 1200 m). In subtropical and tropical marine and brackish waters; salinities of 31 – 37 ‰ (Bastida-Zavala & ten Hove 2002); on reef flats, on chlorophytes, epifauna of mobile substrata (mollusks and crustaceans), boat harbors, lagoons and reef slope (Bailey-Brock 1976); on the oysters Pinctada fucata, Crassostrea gigas and Pteria (Magnavicula) penguin (Imajima 1976 b); on the crab Charybdis riversandersoni, dead coral (Pocillopora damicornis) and buried in the coral Montastrea sp. (Nishi 1995 a, 1996); also on rocks, seagrass, macroalgae (Cystoseira myrica, Digenea, Laurencia and Sargassum), sponges, gastropods (Murex forskoehli), bivalves (Brachidontes pharaonis, Chama gryphoides, Chicoreus erythraeus, Crenatula picta, Fulvia fragilis, Fusinus verrucosus, Malvufundus normalis, M. regulus, Pinctada radiata, Spondylus spinosus and Pectinidae), bryozoans, barnacles, crabs, tunicates, coral debris, under rocks, and on artificial substrates such as boat and ship hulls, cement and wood dock pilings, buoys, PVC or terracotta plates, canal walls, tin cans, rubber fenders and iron frames (Hartman 1952; Long 1974; Díaz-Castañeda 2000; Bastida-Zavala & Salazar-Vallejo 2000 b; Bastida-Zavala & ten Hove 2002, 2003; Ben-Eliahu & ten Hove 2011).
description
Figs 4 E, 5
diagnosis
Diagnosis This species is gregarious and can form small colonies. Tube white, with or without two longitudinal ridges, with or without peristomes; but not alveoli. Opercular peduncle smooth, white. Opercular funnel with 15 – 31 radii (21 – 35 in eastern Pacific specimens) with blunt tips (Fig. 4 E); verticil with 11 – 18 spines, straight, with pointed tips (Fig. 4 E); all spines with 0 – 4 internal spinules and 2 – 3 pairs of lateral spinules (2 – 5 in eastern Pacific specimens), without external spinules and / or wings (Fig. 4 E). Special collar chaetae with two pointed-elongate teeth and a proximal rasp, distal blade with notch and many denticles.
discussion
Taxonomic remarks Hydroides elegans now exhibits a world-wide distribution in tropical and subtropical ports, marinas and eutrophic lagoons (ten Hove 1974). Due to its rapid colonization and population growth, it is considered an invasive species (Zibrowius 1973, 1992, 1994; Tovar-Hernández et al. 2009, 2014). The main means of dispersal of this species is through fouling on boats and ships and / or as larvae in ballast water (Nelson-Smith 1967; Tovar-Hernández et al. 2009). Although H. elegans was described from Australia (Haswell 1883), and Zibrowius (1992) and several authors speculate that it is native there (Ben-Eliahu & ten Hove 2011; Sun et al. 2015), this is not clear evidence of an Australian origin. Bastida-Zavala et al. (2016: 420) draw attention to the fact that both the Hawaiian (Long 1974; Bailey-Brock 1976) and Australian (Sun et al. 2015) records of this species were from both natural and man-made substrates, suggesting a broader Indo-West Pacific origin. However, there are also records of this species from both natural and artificial substrates in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea (e. g., Hartman 1952; Bastida-Zavala & Salazar-Vallejo 2000 b; Bastida-Zavala & ten Hove 2002). In addition, 20 years before H. elegans was described, Krøyer (in Mörch 1863) described H. abbreviata, a senior synonym of the former species, from Saint Croix, a Caribbean Island, suggesting a possible Caribbean origin as well. Finally, the oldest description of a senior synonym of H. elegans is H. pectinatus, described by Philippi in 1844, from the Mediterranean. One of these old names could take precedence over the name H. elegans (Principle of Priority, ICZN 1999, art. 23); however, nomenclatural stability will not promote the re-introduction of these oldest available names, and therefore the conditions for reversal of precedence are met (ICZN 1999, art. 23.9). To resolve the origin of this species, a molecular analysis of the different world-wide populations will be necessary. In this work, Hydroides elegans is considered a cryptogenic species.
distribution
Distribution Worldwide in tropical to temperate waters. Western Atlantic: Caribbean Sea, Bermuda, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil; eastern Pacific: Hawaii, southern California, Mexican Pacific, Panama; other regions: Mediterranean, Suez Canal, western and South Africa, Mozambique, Pakistan, Java, Hong Kong, Australia, southern and central Japan, Palau Islands (Mörch 1863; Fauvel 1932; Day 1967; Zibrowius 1971; Imajima 1976 b, 1979, 1982; Ishaq & Mustaquim 1996; Bastida-Zavala & ten Hove 2002, 2003; Çinar 2006; Bastida-Zavala 2008; Ben-Eliahu & ten Hove 2011; Sun et al. 2012, 2015). In this work, Hydroides elegans was found abundantly and frequently on fouling plates from the Indian River and Tampa Bay, Florida; Long Beach and San Diego Bay, California; and Oahu, Hawaii; and occasionally from Biscayne Bay, Florida, and Humboldt Bay and Mission Bay, California (Fig. 5). Only one specimen was found on a fouling plate from Humboldt Bay, California, in 2003, suggesting that the species may now be present in northern California. However, additional sampling is necessary to confirm that H. elegans is currently established in northern California. Hydroides elegans was observed at Eel Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on one occasion in the summer and fall of 2011, surviving the winter 2011 – 2012, and found again in the spring of 2012 occurring at remarkable abundances. However, after the second winter, no live specimens were found (Fofonoff et al. 2003; Jim Carlton, pers. comm., 2011 – 2013) so it is not clear if the species is still established there. If so, this record extends the northward range of the species on the east coast, from the Indian River, Florida, to Cape Cod, Massachusetts (1750 km). The remarkable abundance observed by Carlton demonstrates the colonization potential of H. elegans with warming temperatures, such as those predicted under the climate change scenario. On the east coast, Eel Pond has a latitude of 41 ° 33 ' N, while on the west coast, Humbolt Bay, northern California, is located at 40 ° 45 ' N; both localities represent the northernmost records of this species on mainland North America, suggesting that continued monitoring is necessary to evaluate the species spread.
materials_examined
Material examined 384 specimens: IR (123) Aug. 2005, BB (1) Aug. 2004, TB (32) Jun. and Jul. 2012, HB (1) Sep. 2003, LB (87) Sep. 2003, MI (5) Jul. 2013, SD (87) Sep. 2000 and Jul. 2013, HI (48) Aug. 2006. Additional material 18 specimens: LACMNH s. n., colony (southern California, 33 ° 21 ' 03 " N, 118 ° 19 ' 55 " W, off Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, Velero III, sta. 1377, grey sand, 110 m, 3 Aug. 1941, as Serpula sp.); LACMNH s. n., 1 specimen (southern California, 33 ° 44 ' 02 " N, 118 ° 32 ' 03 " W, 10 km from Pt Vicente lighthouse, Velero IV, sta. 2475, peel grab, mud, specimen attached to hexactinellid sponge, 740 m, 28 Oct. 1953); LACMNH s. n., 1 specimen (southern California, 33 ° 47 ' 59 " N, 118 ° 33 ' 59 " W, 11.5 km from Palos Verdes Point, Velero IV, sta. 2792, Hayward grab, mud, 600 m, 22 May 1954); LACMNH s. n., 1 specimen (southern California, 33 ° 14 ' N, 118 ° 18 ' 04 " W, 6.9 km from East End Light, Santa Catalina Island, Velero IV, sta. 2850, Campbell grab, 1200 m, 23 Jun. 1954); MBL-SD s. n., 5 specimens (southern California, approx. 32 ° 43 ' N, 117 ° 13 ' W, San Diego, CSA P – 161, 1 month plate, 7 Oct. to 7 Nov. 1974, as H. pacificus).
Name
- Homonyms
- Hydroides elegans (Haswell 1883)