Invasion History

First Non-native Panama (Pacific) Tidal Record: 1960

Panama Invasion History:


Invasion history elsewhere in the world:

The native region of Limnoria tripunctata is unknown, because of its late description and distinction from L. lignorum. Limnoria tripunctata is now widespread on the East Coast of North America from Boston Harbor to the Panama Canal, and in South America from Uruguay and Argentina. It is widespread in Europe from La Rochelle, France to Portugal and the Azores, and through the Mediterranean (Bourdillon 1958; Jones 1972, Sen et al. 2010; Borges et al. 2014c; Borges and Costa 2014). In British waters, L. tripunctata appears to be a recent colonist, becoming established in thermal effluents, and colonizing adjacent waters (Jones 1963; Eltringham and Hockley, 1963; Coughlan 1977). In England, it was first found in 1958 in Southampton Water, on the English Channel, and was subsequently found in the Welsh ports of Burry and Swansea on the Irish Sea (Jones 1963). It was reported from Ghana, in the Gulf of Guinea (Cookson 1990), where we consider it cryptogenic. In Cape Town, South Africa, it was first reported from the docks of Table Bay in 2008 (Mead et al. 2011b).

Limnoria tripunctata is widespread in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, from China and Japan to Australia and Fiji (Wallour 1960; Nair 1984; Cookson 1990; Huang 2001; US National Museum of Natural History 2015). This gribble is considered nonindigenous in New Zealand, and was first reported in 1964 (McGuire 1964, cited by Cookson 1990; Cranfield et al. 1998).


Description

Limnoria tripunctata is a gribble, a small, marine, wood-boring isopod. Limnoria tripunctata has a small, nearly cylindrical body. The cephalon (head region) is compressed and ovoid, with lateral eyes. The cephalon is distinct from the pereion (thoracic region) and freely rotates. Antennas 1 and 2 are equally anterior, with an obvious scale on Antenna 1. The flagellum of second antenna has 4 segments.The left mandible incisor lacks teeth, instead forming a projecting rasp-and-file device. Uropods are greatly reduced, with the exopod much shorter than the endopod, and bearing an apical claw.

The anterior dorsal surface of the pleotelson bears three symmetrically arranged tubercles anteriorly. The lateral and posterior edges are lined with tubercules. Adults are up to 3.4 mm long, white to pink when alive, and yellow when preserved in alcohol. Description based on information from: Menzies 1957; Cookson 1990; Brusca et al. 2007; and Castelló 2011.


Taxonomy

Taxonomic Tree

Kingdom:   Animalia
Phylum:   Arthropoda
Subphylum:   Crustacea
Class:   Malacostraca
Subclass:   Eumalacostraca
Superorder:   Peracarida
Order:   Isopoda
Suborder:   Flabellifera
Family:   Limnoriidae
Genus:   Limnoria
Species:   tripunctata

Synonyms

Limnoria lignorum (Richardson, 1889)
Limnoria terebrans (Leach, 1841)
Limnoria tuberculata (Sowinsky, 1884)

Potentially Misidentified Species

Limnoria lignorum
Limnoria lignorum has a circumboreal distribution in the northern Atlantic and Pacific, and is presumed to be native throughout this range (Menzies 1957).

Limnoria pfeiferri
None

Limnoria quadripunctata
Limnoria quadripunctata is probably native to the South Pacific, and has been introduced to Europe, the Azores, Bermuda, the West Coast, and South Africa (Menzies 1957; Wallour 1960; Jones 1963; Mead et al. 2011b).

Limnoria tuberculata
Limnoria tuberculata has been variously synonymized with or treated as a separate species from L. tripunctata. It was described from the Black Sea by Sowinsky in 1884. Menzies (1972) identified an apparently reproductively isolated population from Chatham, Massachusetts, as this species. Kensley and Schotte (Kensley and Schotte 1987; Kensley and Schotte 1989) have treated this name as the senior synonym of L. tripunctata, but used 'L. tripunctata' in Kensley et al. (1995). However, Cookson (1990) and Castelló (2011), treat L. tuberculata as a separate species. If it is a distinct species, its records are few and scattered, and little is known of its biology.

Ecology

General:

Limnoria tripunctata has separate sexes, and copulation is internal. Typically, in Limnoria spp., a single pair occupies a boring tunnel, with the female closer to the opening. Brood sizes of L. tripunctata range from 5 to 15 eggs per female. The young are brooded by the female (Becker 1971). Adults and juveniles swarm seasonally, and colonize new pieces of wood. They prefer rough surfaces of relatively soft wood, preferably infected by fungi (Becker 1971).

Limnoria tripunctata inhabits warm-temperate to tropical climates and marine salinities. It tolerates winter temperatures as low as 2 °C (Menzies 1957) and experimental temperatures as high as 30 °C (Beckman and Menzies 1960). Reproduction occurs at 15-30 °C, but development was optimum at 25 °C (Beckman and Menzies 1960). In experiments, this gribble had good survival at salinities of 36-50 PSU, but poor survival (15-50%) at 18 and 24 PSU (Eltringham 1961; Lum 1981). In Southampton Water, England, migration began in June at about 18 °C (Eltringham and Hockley 1963). Limnoria tripunctata digests non-cellulosic carbohydrates in wood, together with some cellulose, and excretes lignin in pellets—all without the aid of gut microflora (Becker 1971; Sleeter et al. 1978). Limnoria spp. host a variety of protozoan epibionts and crustacean symbionts. At least one epibiont, the ciliate Mirofolliculina limnoriae slows the feeding, swimming and growth of Limnoria tripunctata, and so can be regarded as an ectoparasite (Delgery et al. 2006).

Food:

Wood and associated microbiota

Trophic Status:

Herbivore

Herb

Habitats

General HabitatCoarse Woody DebrisNone
General HabitatMarinas & DocksNone
General HabitatGrass BedNone
General HabitatMangrovesNone
General HabitatVessel HullNone
Salinity RangePolyhaline18-30 PSU
Tidal RangeSubtidalNone
Vertical HabitatEpibenthicNone

Life History


Tolerances and Life History Parameters

Minimum Temperature (ºC)2Field data (Menzies 1957)
Maximum Temperature (ºC)30(Beckman and Menzies 1960)
Minimum Salinity (‰)19Experimental data (Lum 1981).
Maximum Salinity (‰)50Experimental data (Lum 1981).
Minimum Reproductive Temperature15Experimental data (Beckman and Menzies 1960)
Maximum Reproductive Temperature30Highest tested (Beckman and Menzies 1960)
Minimum Length (mm)2Minimum adult size (Menzies 1957; Cookson 1990)
Maximum Length (mm)4Minimum adult size (Menzies 1957; Cookson 1990)
Broad Temperature RangeNoneCold temperate-Tropical
Broad Salinity RangeNonePolyhaline-Euhaline

General Impacts

Limnoria tripunctata, a gribble (wood-boring isopod) is a major wood-borer, damaging wooden pilings and ship hulls in warm-temperate to tropical marine waters around the world. It is rare or absent in ports where salinity drops much below 20 PSU (Becker 1971; Lum 1971). Damage to pilings by L. tripunctata has been reported from Boca Grande, Florida (Atwood 1922), Los Angeles (Quayle 1992), San Francisco Bay (Carlton 1979; Cohen and Carlton 1995), British Columbia (Quayle 1992), and England (Jones 1963). Replacement and treatment of pilings, and the effects of toxic compounds, such as creosote and other wood treatments, add to the impacts of Limnoria (Becker 1971).


Regional Distribution Map

Bioregion Region Name Year Invasion Status Population Status
PAN_PAC Panama Pacific Coast 1960 Def Estab
PAN_CAR Panama Caribbean Coast 1949 Crypto Estab

Occurrence Map

OCC_ID Author Year Date Locality Status Latitude Longitude

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