Mitochondrial control region sequence analyses indicate dispersal from the US East Coast as the source of the invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans in the Bahamas

Abstract

LionWsh are popular aquarium Wsh from the Indo-PaciWc that have invaded the western Atlantic. Two species, Pterois volitans and P. miles, were well established along the United States east coast before the Wrst lionWsh were reported from the Bahamas in 2004, where they quickly dispersed throughout the archipelago by 2007. The source of the Bahamian lionWsh invasion has been in ques- tion because of the hypothesized low connectivity between Florida and Bahamas reef species as well as the temporal lag in their arrival in the Bahamas. Mitochondrial control region haplotypes (680 bp) were determined and analyzed for lionWsh specimens from the Bahamas, North Carolina, and two sites within their native range (Indonesia and the Philippines). Exact tests, pairwise F st and AMOVA analy- ses all showed no signiWcant diVerentiation between the Bahamas and North Carolina specimens. The similarity between the Bahamas and North Carolina lionWsh was also reXected in a minimum spanning network and neighbor- joining distance tree generated from the data. Sequence analyses also revealed the presence of only Pterois volitans, as no P. miles were detected in the Bahamian sample. These results indicate that the source of the Bahamian lion- Wsh is egg and larval dispersal from the United States east coast population, and support previous models of reef Wsh dispersal that suggest a low level of connectivity between the Bahamas and east coast of Florida.