Abstract
The exotic Indo-West-Pacific species, Ficopomatus uschakovi (Polychaeta, Serpulidae) is recorded for the first time in the Tropical Eastern Pacific from two sites in La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas, a coastal lagoon in the Pacific south of Mexico. The means of dispersal of this serpulid species still remains unclear, as the nearest port (Puerto Chiapas) is 70 km to the south, and there are no port installations or shrimp cultures in the lagoon. The record of this serpulid species, apparently widely distributed in this coastal lagoon, has implications regarding possible effects on the brackish-water ecosystem, since the invasion event very well may have occurred several years ago. It is recommended that an exhaustive study be carried out in the coastal lagoons of Chiapas to evaluate the real distribution and the effects of this invasive species on the ecosystem. A complete description, including photographs and drawings, is provided.
Highlights
F. enigmaticus, was recorded as an exotic species from San Francisco Bay, California, and, recently, F. miamiensis was recorded from Urías lagoon, near Mazatlán, southeast of the Gulf of California, as an exotic species related to shrimp-ponds; the introduction could have taken place 20 years ago, when shrimp larvae were imported from Florida (Salgado-Barragán et al 2004, Tovar-Hernández et al 2009)
The presence of a species, resembling F. uschakovi, from La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve was initially brought to the attention of the authors two years ago
No other record of the species existed throughout the Tropical Eastern Pacific
Summary
The genus Ficopomatus Southern, 1921 includes five species of brackish-water serpulids (ten Hove and Kupriyanova 2009): Ficopomatus macrodon Southern, 1921, from India and Sri Lanka (ten Hove and Weerdenburg 1978); F. enigmaticus (Fauvel, 1923), recorded from subtropical-temperate waters worldwide (Fauvel 1923, ten Hove and Weerdenburg 1978); F. miamiensis (Treadwell, 1934), widely distributed in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean (Rioja 1945, ten Hove and Weerdenburg 1978, Bastida-Zavala and Salazar-Vallejo 2000, and see below); F. uschakovi (Pillai, 1960), from Indo-Pacific and West Africa (ten Hove and Weerdenburg 1978); and F. talehsapensis Pillai, 2008, known only from Taléh Sap, Gulf of Thailand (Pillai 2008). Ficopomatus uschakovi has been recorded from the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa since the 1950’s (Hartmann-Schröder 1971) This species was recorded in north-eastern Brazil (de Assis et al 2008) and Venezuela (Liñero-Arana and Díaz-Díaz 2012)
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