The invasive sun coral Tubastraea coccinea hosting a native Christmas tree worm at Cura\xe7ao, Dutch Caribbean

Bert W Hoeksema,Harry A Ten Hove

doi:10.1007/s12526-016-0472-7

Bert W Hoeksema, Harry A Ten Hove

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0472-7

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Abstract

Interspecific relationships of invasive species hosting a native associated species are noteworthy, particularly if the invasive does not have a similar relationship in its native range. The azooxanthellate Indo-Pacific coral Tubastraea coccinea (Dendrophylliidae) has become a widespread invasive in the tropical western Atlantic, where it was probably introduced as a fouling organism in the 1930s. During recent coral reef surveys this invader has been observed as host for a native tube worm, Spirobranchus giganteus (Serpulidae), at Curaçao, where this association was most commonly found on a shipwreck. Although Spirobranchus species are known to live in association with various shallow-water corals in the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific, none of them has been recorded as an associate of a dendrophylliid or of an azooxanthellate coral before. This new association may be possible because of the generalist host selection of S. giganteus, which could have been facilitated by the availability of shipwrecks and other man-made substrates.

Highlights

Many reports on introduced species as novel hosts for native parasites concern terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., Prider et al 2009; Li et al 2012; Meijer et al 2015; Van Nieukerken and Geertsema 2015) and freshwater habitats (e.g., Glodosky and Sandland 2014; Subchev 2014)
The American slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata (Linnaeus, 1758) is an introduced host for the boring sponge Cliona celata Grant, 1826, and the digenean trematode Himasthla elongata (Mehlis, 1831) in the northeastern part of the Atlantic (Hoeksema 1983; Thieltges et al 2009), whereas both parasites occur in their host’s native range (Blakeslee et al 2011; Carroll et al 2015). Another example concerns ctenophores of the species Mnemiopsis leidyi Agassiz, 1865, which can become infested by parasitic larvae of the actiniarian genus Edwardsiella in the ctenophore’s original native range along the North American east coast and in its new, introduced range in northwestern Europe (Reitzel et al 2009; Selander et al 2010)
These two dendrophylliid coral species, Rhizopsammia goesi (Lindström, 1877) and Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1829, are the first known azooxanthellate scleractinians inhabited by Spirobranchus

Summary

Introduction

Many reports on introduced species as novel hosts for native parasites concern terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., Prider et al 2009; Li et al 2012; Meijer et al 2015; Van Nieukerken and Geertsema 2015) and freshwater habitats (e.g., Glodosky and Sandland 2014; Subchev 2014). The American slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata (Linnaeus, 1758) is an introduced host for the boring sponge Cliona celata Grant, 1826, and the digenean trematode Himasthla elongata (Mehlis, 1831) in the northeastern part of the Atlantic (Hoeksema 1983; Thieltges et al 2009), whereas both parasites occur in their host’s native range (Blakeslee et al 2011; Carroll et al 2015). It is difficult to find records of a marine invasive species that only hosts a particular kind of associate in its introduced range but not in its home range

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