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| Thylacodes vandyensis n. sp. |
Artificial reefs are
viewed favorably by resource managers who believe they provide habitat
structure and settling sites for invertebrate biological diversity, which
settle on the site and eventually attract fishes and other organisms. Artificial reefs produced by purposely creating
shipwrecks are popular sites for divers due to the enriched biological
diversity of the site. In addition, it
is generally hoped shipwreck sites might take tourist pressure off natural
sites.
Recently, Rüdiger
Bieler of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and his colleagues
reported in the journal PeerJ (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3158) that several
invasive species of mollusks are settling on shipwrecks including a newly
described species of worm-snail presumably from the Pacific Ocean. Bieler has been studying the natural reefs
along the Florida Keys intermittently over the past 30 years and artificial
reefs since 2002, so he has a good idea of what is native to the area and what
is a new-comer. Indeed, this recent
study follows he and his colleagues’ 2003 discovery of a gryphaeid oyster on
the same artificial reefs in the Florida Keys (Bieler et al., 2004).
During dives in 2014
and later in 2016, Bieler observed what looked to be an undescribed species of
vermetid worm-snail. Bieler has studied
vermetids off-and-on since 1983 including an examination of relevant museum
material, and has collected them at many sites in the Atlantic between Bermuda
and Venezuela, so he knows the fauna extremely well. Although there was a possibility that the
species was from the Atlantic and simply had been remained undetected until
recently, molecular DNA data indicated the newly described species to be more
closely related to Pacific species than to the sampled Atlantic fauna. The name they gave the species is Thylacodes vandyensis n. sp. Bieler, Rawlings & Collins after the nickname
for the wreck USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, where it was found.
Although some may
question why it matters that a new invasive worm-snail has been discovered in the
Florida Keys artificial reefs, the authors note that vermetid-coral interactions
are known to be potentially harmful to hard coral growth and survival.
Additionally, vermetids have been shown to be intermediate hosts for blood
flukes that parasitize loggerhead turtles, so the impacts of this newly
invasive species remains to be seen.
Bieler et al. (2017) attribute
their discoveries to “years of focused taxonomic study on the mollusks, access
to historical museum collections, and regular resampling within the Florida
Keys.” Continued long-term monitoring is
vital to continue to understand the influence of these invasive species on
artificial reefs and natural settings and for detection of any other species
certain to make an appearance in time.
Literature Cited
Bieler, R., C. Granados-Cifuentes,
T. A. Rawlings, P. Sierwald, T. M. Collins.
2017. Non-native molluscan colonizers on deliberately placed shipwrecks
in the Florida Keys, with description of a new species of potentially invasive
worm-snail (Gastropoda: Vermetidae) PeerJ 5:e3158 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3158
Bieler, R., P. M.
Mikkelsen, T. Lee, and D. O. Foighil.
2004. Discovery of the
Indo-Pacific oyster Hyotissa hyotis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Florida Keys
(Bivalvia: Gryphaeidae). Molluscan
Research 24:149-159.
