Eusarsiella zostericola

Invasion History

First Non-native North American Tidal Record: 1953
First Non-native West Coast Tidal Record: 1953
First Non-native East/Gulf Coast Tidal Record:

---

General Invasion History:

Eusarsiella zostericola is native to the East Coast of North America, where it extends from Nova Scotia to Texas. It has been introduced to San Francisco Bay, California (CA); Humboldt Bay, CA; and Willapa Bay, Washington (WA) (Kornicker 1975; Cohen et al. 2001; California Department of Fish and Wildlife 2014); as well as, several British estuaries on the English Channel (Kornicker 1975; Bamber 1987) and in the Netherlands (Faasse 2013). The likeliest vector for introduction in each of the above instances are transplants of Eastern Oysters (Crassostrea virgnica), from East Coast estuaries to the West Coast and Europe, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Kornicker 1975). The small size of these ostracods (1.0-1.5 mm) has probably contributed to their late discovery. Benthic ostracods have limited swimming ability and are rare in ballast water samples (e.g., Carlton and Geller 1993).

North American Invasion History:

Invasion History on the West Coast:

Eusarsiella zostericola was first collected off Point Richmond, San Francisco Bay, CA in 1953, and was initially identified as a new species, Sarsia tricostata. The San Francisco Bay specimens were later found to be conspecific with the East Coast E. zostericola (Kornicker 1967; Kornicker 1975). It is widespread and common to abundant in the South, Central, and San Pablo Bays (Foss 2009; Peterson and Vaysierres 2010) but rare in the Delta (Light et al. 2005). As noted above, it was probably introduced with Eastern Oysters in the late 19th century (Kornicker 1975). In 1999 and 2000, it was collected in Willapa Bay, Washington (Wilson and Partridge 2007; Cohen et al. 2001). In 2011, four specimens were collected in Humboldt Bay, CA (California Department of Fish and Wildlife 2014). Both bays were sites of historical Eastern Oyster transplants.

Invasion History Elsewhere in the World:

Eusarsiella zostericola was collected in England at the Blackwater River estuary in 1967 (Kornicker 1975). It was later collected from Kingsnorth Power Station, on the River Medway, in 1980 (Bamber 1987). In 2012, it was found in the Thames Estuary and west to the Isle of Wight (D.J. Horne, personal communication, cited by Faasse 2013). In 2012, this ostracod was collected in the Oosterschelde estuary, in the Netherlands. Local culture and transplants of mussels and oyster are likely vectors for the transport of E. zostericola (Faasse 2013).

---

Description

The body of an ostracod is enclosed by a bivalve carapace, with two calcified lateral shells connected by a dorsal band of un-calcified cuticle. The shell can be closed by bundles of transverse muscle fibers (central adductor muscles) near the center of each valve, or opened to permit the appendages to extend for crawling or feeding. The surface of the shell has numerous openings for pore canals, equipped with chemosensory and tactile sensilla, and may be ornamented with pits, tubercles, and irregular projections.

In the order Myocopida, to which Eusarsiella zostericola belongs, notches in the anterior margin of the valves permit the antennae to protrude. The soft body, inside the carapace, consists of a somewhat rigid head capsule, with a labrum and lip, an indistinct thorax, and an unsegmented (or poorly segmented) trunk. There is a small median naupliar eye, anterior to a pair of compound lateral eyes. There are 7 paired limbs in Eusarsiella. Antenna 1 is uniramous. Antenna 2 is adapted for swimming, has a large muscular protopod, and a long exopod with 9 segments, and a small endopod with 1-3 segments. The body terminates in a large furca, anterior to the anus, and ending in prominent claws. Description based on Barnes 1983 and Cohen et al. 2007.

The sexes of E. zostericola are strongly dimorphic. Females are oval, lacking a rostrum, with a posteroventral process and 3 lateral ribs radiating from a hub forward of the center. The posterior rib terminates in a knob with two small lateral pits. A narrow smooth ridge parallels the valve margin. The valve margins have rows of long hairs. Antenna 1 has a 2nd segment with a spinous dorsal seta, a 3rd segment without a ventral seta, and a 4th segment with 3 ventral seta. The endopodite of Antenna 2 of the female has a single joint with 2 proximal seta and a short terminal spine. The female 7th limb has 6 terminal setae and 4-6 proximal setae. The furca does not have secondary claws between the primary claws. Adult females range between 1.1 and 1.6 mm in size, while adult males range between 1.1 and 1.3 mm. Males have a more elongated body, somewhat resembling a lemon, in lateral view, with a small rostrum, and a slight posteroventral process. The 7th limb of males is reduced to a stump, but males have a small copulatory limb. Description based on Kornicker 1967, Kornicker 1986, Bamber 1987, and Cohen et al. 2007.

---

Taxonomy

Ecology

General:

Eusarsiella zostericola has separate sexes and internal fertilization. Its eggs are brooded. Females in Hadley Harbor, Massachusetts had 5-16 eggs. Development is direct. Males and females mature through five instars to maturity (Kornicker 1967; Bamber 1987).

Eusarsiella zostericola has a broad native range and tolerates a wide span of temperatures and salinities, from near-freezing to 33C, and upper mesohaline to upper euhaline salinities. It occurs over a depth range of 0.18-44.5 m. Habitats include unstructured sediments, ranging from silt to fine sand, oyster beds, eelgrass beds, mangroves, and hydroids. This ostracod is thought to be a carnivore, as one reported specimen contained a harpacticoid copepod (Wass 1972; Kornicker 1967; Kornicker 1986).

Food:

Carnivore

Consumers:

fishes, invertebrates

Trophic Status:

Deposit Feeder

DepFed

---

Habitats

General Habitat	Grass Bed	None
General Habitat	Oyster Reef	None
General Habitat	Unstructured Bottom	None
General Habitat	Mangroves	None
Salinity Range	Mesohaline	5-18 PSU
Salinity Range	Polyhaline	18-30 PSU
Salinity Range	Euhaline	30-40 PSU
Tidal Range	Subtidal	None
Vertical Habitat	Epibenthic	None

---

---

Tolerances and Life History Parameters

Minimum Temperature (ºC)	3	Field, Long Island Sound NY (Kornicker 1986)
Maximum Temperature (ºC)	33	Field, St. Lucie inlet, FL (Kornicker 1986)
Minimum Salinity (‰)	18	Banana River, FL (Kornicker 1986)
Maximum Salinity (‰)	42	Field, Haulover Canal Kornicker 1986)
Minimum Length (mm)	1.3	Adults (Bamber 1987)
Maximum Length (mm)	1.5	Adults (Bamber 1987)
Broad Temperature Range	None	Cold temperate-Subtropical
Broad Salinity Range	None	Mesohaline-Euhaline

General Impacts

There are no known ecological and economic impacts of Eusarsiella zostericola.

---

References

Applied Marine Sciences (2014) <missing title>, Applied Marine Sciences, Livermore CA. Pp. 1-30

Bamber, R. N. (1987) Some aspects of the biology of the North American ostracod Sarsiella zostericola Cushman in the vicinity of a British power station, Journal of Micropaleontology 6(1): 57-62

Barnes, Robert D. (1983) Invertebrate Zoology, Saunders, Philadelphia. Pp. 883

Bloch. Philip; Novak, Grant (2011) The 2011 International Conference on Ecology & Transportation, International Conference on Ecology & Transportation, <missing place>. Pp. 400-410

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (2014) Introduced Aquatic Species in California Bays and Harbors, 2011 Survey, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento CA. Pp. 1-36

Carlton, James T. (1979) History, biogeography, and ecology of the introduced marine and estuarine invertebrates of the Pacific Coast of North America., Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis. Pp. 1-904

Carlton, James T., Geller, Jonathan B. (1993) Ecological roulette: the global transport of nonindigenous marine organisms., Science 261: 78-82

Cohen, Andrew N. and 22 authors (2001) <missing title>, Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Olympia. Pp. <missing location>

Cohen, Andrew N.; Carlton, James T. (1995) Nonindigenous aquatic species in a United States estuary: a case study of the biological invasions of the San Francisco Bay and Delta, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Sea Grant College Program (Connecticut Sea Grant), Washington DC, Silver Spring MD.. Pp. <missing location>

Cohen, Anne C.; Peterson, Dawn E.; Maddocks, Rosalie F. (2007) The Light and Smith Manual: Intertidal invertebrates from Central California to Oregon (4th edition), University of California Press, Berkeley CA. Pp. 417-446

Eno, N. Clare; Clark, Robin A.; Sanderson, William G. (1997) <missing title>, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough. Pp. <missing location>

Faasse, Marco (2013) The North American ostracod Eusarsiella zostericola (Cushman, 1906) arrives in mainland Europe, Bioinvasion Records 2: in press

Foss, Stephen (2009) <missing title>, California Department of Fish and Game, Sacramento CA. Pp. <missing location>

Jones, Meredith E. (1958a) Sarsiella tricostata, a new ostraocd from San Francisco Bay (Myocopida, Cyprinidae), Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 48(2): 48-52

Jones, Meredith E. (1958b) Further notes on Sarsiella tricostata, Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 48(7): 238-239

Kornicker, Louis S. (1967) A study of three species of Sarsiella (Ostracoda: Myodocopa), Proceedings of the United States National Museum 122(3594): 1-46

Kornicker, Louis S. (1974) Ostracoda (Myodocopina) of Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology <missing volume>: 1-20

Kornicker, Louis S. (1975) Spread of ostracodes to exotic environs on transplanted oysters, Bulletins of American Paleontology 65: 129-139

Kornicker, Louis S. (1977) Myodocopid Ostracoda of the Indian River complex, Florida, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 90(4): 788-797

Kornicker, Louis S. (1986) Sarsiellidae of the Western Atlantic and northern Gulf of Mexico, and revision of the Sarsiellinae (Ostracoda: Myodocopina), Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 415: 1-217

Light, Theo; Grosholtz, Ted; Moyle, Peter (2005) Delta ecological survey (phase1): Nonindigenous aquatic species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a literature review, In: None(Eds.) None. , Stockton, CA. Pp. <missing location>

Peterson, Heather A.; Vayssieres, Marc (2010) Benthic assemblage variability in the upper San Francisco estuary: A 27-year retrospective, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science <missing volume>: published online

Ruiz, Gregory M.; Geller, Jonathan (2018) Spatial and temporal analysis of marine invasions in California, Part II: Humboldt Bay, Marina del Re, Port Hueneme, and San Francisco Bay, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center & Moss Landing Laboratories, Edgewater MD, Moss Landing CA. Pp. <missing location>

U.S. National Museum of Natural History 2002-2021 Invertebrate Zoology Collections Database. http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/iz/



Wass, Melvin L. (1972) A checklist of the biota of lower Chesapeake Bay, Special Scientific Report, Virginia Institute of Marine Science 65: 1-290

Wilson, Sarah; Partridge, Valerie (2007) <missing title>, Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia. Pp. 244

---