------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 15:01:55 +0200
To: "Geoff Read" <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>
From: "Harry A. ten Hove" <hove at bio.uva.nl>
Subject: Re: Ficopomatus & Fauna of Australia
Dear Geoff,
below part of a seminar I gave during the 1998 meetings of The ICES Working
Group on Introductions and Transfers of Marine Organisms. If you think it
of general interest, you can put it on Annelida net.
By the way, I have the feeling that the japanese Hydroides ezoensis has
been reported from Sydney environments, but doubt whether the report has
been published yet.
By the way 2, ten Hove & Weerdenburg mention only 4 species of Ficopomatus,
so your
>The fifth is F. enigmaticus,
is slightly misleading.
FICOPOMATUS ENIGMATICUS
The origin of Ficopomatus enigmaticus has been subject of much debate, and
confusion. Its original describer, Fauvel, assumed correctly that it could
not have escaped attention till 1923 in European waters. However, his
assumption that it originated from India cannot be correct, he confused F.
enigmaticus with other species of the same genus occurring there. Allen
(1953) mentions that F. enigmaticus already was widely spread through
Australia in the early thirties, and is the first to hypothesize an
Australian origin. On a global scale, the genus Ficopomatus has next to
enigmaticus two more representatives in the Indo-Pacific Region, one of
them endemic to India and Malaya, one very commonly occurring in the
Malaysian Region (with a possible dissemination to tropical W. Africa, and
one isolated record of macerating specimens cast ashore in the Netherlands
on a large piece of bark). In the Neotropical realm there is only one
endemic tropical species, Ficopomatus miamiensis. In evolutionary
systematics it is often assumed that the area with he highest number of
representatives of a certain taxon is the source area, the centre of
evolution. If this is correct, an Indo-Pacific origin of F.enigmaticus
would be the most likely, but the evidence is thin indeed. If indeed of
Australian origin, one would expect that F. enigmaticus would have been
established in New Zealand for centuries past. However, it apparently
arrived there just a couple of decades ago (Read & Gordon, 1991).
dr. Harry A. ten Hove
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics
Zoological Museum, University of Amsterdam
POB 94766, 1090 GT AMSTERDAM
TEL. 3120 5256906
FAX. 3120 5255402
http://www-zma.bio.uva.nl/departments/Coel/coeleng/harry.html
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