Description

Taxonomy

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus
Animalia	Mollusca	Gastropoda	Nudibranchia	Dotidae	Miesea

Synonyms

Embletonia evelinae

Invasion History

Chesapeake Bay Status

First Record	Population	Range	Introduction	Residency	Source Region	Native Region	Vectors
1994	Established	Unknown	Cryptogenic	Regular Resident	Western Atlantic	Western Atlantic	Shipping(Ballast Water,Fouling Community)

History of Spread

The nudibranch Miesea evelinae was described from Ubatuba, north of Sao Paulo, Brazil (Marcus 1957), and subsequently found at another Brazilian locality 350 km south. It was found in 1955 in the Newport River NC (Marcus 1961; Wells 1961), the coast of SC (United States Museum of Natural History 2003), the west coast of FL (Marcus 1977). Its occurrence on a fouling plate in Norfolk Harbor (only one locality) was only the sixth location known for this species, to our knowledge (Abbott 1974; Gosliner 1994; Marcus 1977; Rosenberg 1995; Ruiz et al. unpublished data). Gosliner (2005, personal communication to Linda McCann) identified two more specimens from our settling plates, one from the Norfolk area, and one from the Eastern shore of Virginia, suggesting an established population in the Bay.

The paucity of records suggests that this species may be either rare or may have a specialized primary habitat which has not been discovered. The native range of this species is thus poorly known, as is its establishment in Chesapeake Bay. Its absence in the Chesapeake studies of Marcus (1972) and Vogel (1977) suggested that it may have been a recent introduction. On the other hand, Gosliner (2005, personal communication to Linda McCann ) wrote 'I think that it may well be native and a distribution from Chesapeake Bay to Brazil is consistent with many other native nudibranch distributions. It is such a minute animal that it could be easily overlooked.' We have decided to treat this species as cryptogenic.

References - Abbott 1974; Gosliner 1994; Marcus 1957; Marcus 1961; Marcus 1972; Marcus 1977; Marcus 1977; Rosenberg 1995; Ruiz et al. unpublished data; Vogel 1977; Wells 1961

Invasion Comments

None

Ecology

Environmental Tolerances

	For Survival		For Reproduction
	Minimum	Maximum	Minimum	Maximum
Temperature (ºC)
Salinity (‰)
Oxygen
pH
	Salinity Range	poly-eu

Age and Growth

	Male	Female
Minimum Adult Size (mm)
Typical Adult Size (mm)	3.0	3.0
Maximum Adult Size (mm)
Maximum Longevity (yrs)
Typical Longevity (yrs

Reproduction

	Start	Peak	End
Reproductive Season
Typical Number of Young Per Reproductive Event
Sexuality Mode(s)
Mode(s) of Asexual Reproduction
Fertilization Type(s)
More than One Reproduction Event per Year
Reproductive Startegy
Egg/Seed Form

Impacts

Economic Impacts in Chesapeake Bay

Miesea evelinae is assumed to have no economic importance in the Chesapeake Bay region.

Economic Impacts Outside of Chesapeake Bay

Miesea evelinae is assumed to have no economic importance in its range.

Ecological Impacts on Chesapeake Native Species

Miesea evelinae is presumably too rare in the Chesapeake region to have significant effects on native biota.

Ecological Impacts on Other Chesapeake Non-Native Species

Miesea evelinae is probably too rare to have significant impacts on introduced biota in Chesapeake Bay.

References

December 6, 1994 Other molluscs, email.. California Academy of Sciences

Marcus, Ernest (1961) Opisthobranchia from North Carolina, Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 77: 141-151

Marcus, Ernesto (1957) On Opisthobranchia from Brazil., Journal of the Linnean Society of London 43: 390-486

Marcus, Eveline du Bois Reymond (1972) Notes on some opisthobranch gastropods from the Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Science 13: 300-317

Marcus, Eveline du Bois Reymond (1977) An annotated checklist of the western Atlantic warm water opisthobranchs, Journal of Molluscan Studies Supplement: 1-22

1995-2023 Malacolog 4.1. http://www.acnatsci.org

Thompson, T. E.; Brown, G. H. (1984) Biology of Opisthobranch Molluscs, Vol. 2., , London. Pp.

Vogel, Rosalie M. (1977) Shell-less opisthobranchs of Virginia and Maryland, , Williamsburg, VA.. Pp.

Wells, Harry W. (1961) The fauna of oyster beds, with special reference to the salinity factor, Ecological Monographs 31: 239-266

Miesea evelinae

Mollusks-Gastropods