Hydroides dirampha

Invasion History

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

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General Invasion History:

Hydroides dirampha was first described in 1863 from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and was also collected from Bahia, Brazil (as H. benzoni, Morch 1863, cited by Zibrowius 1971). Early records in the Western Atlantic range from Bermuda to Brazil (Verrill et al. 1901, Morch 1863, cited by Bastida-Zavala and Ten Hove 2002). Early records are also known from the Philippines and New Zealand (as H. cumingii, Morch 1863, cited by Zibrowius 1971), Hawaii (Ehlers 1905, cited by Zibrowius 1971) and Naples, Italy (as H. lunifera Clarapede 1870, cited by Zibrowius 1971). Zibrowius (1971, 1994) considered the tropical Western Atlantic a possible region of origin, but the Indo-Pacific is also possible. There, H. dirampha ranges from the Red Sea to the Philippines and Japan (Imajima 1978; Vine and Bailey-Brock 1984). This tubeworm is considered introduced in the Gulf of Mexico, the east coast of Florida, the Northeast Pacific (from Mexico and California; Cohen et al. 2002), Hawaii (Coles et al. 1999; Carlton and Eldredge 2009), southeast Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Mediterranean Sea (Zibrowius 1971, Zibrowius 1994).

North American Invasion History:

Invasion History on the West Coast:

Hydroides dirampha was collected from San Diego Bay, California in 1999-2000 (Cohen et al. 2002; Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2003, Ruiz et al. unpublished data).

Invasion History on the East Coast:

The earliest record of Hydroides dirampha on the continental US Coast appears to be a specimen collected in 1970 near Key West Florida (USNM 45247, U.S. National Museum of Natural History 2007). In 2002, it was found in Mayport, Florida, at the mouth of the St. Johns River (Ruiz et al. unpublished data), and in 2004, it was found in the Indian River Lagoon (Ruiz et al. unpublished data).

Invasion History on the Gulf Coast:

Hydroides dirampha was reported from Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, (in 2002, Ruiz et al. unpublished data), and Veracruz, Mexico (in 1996, Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2002).

Invasion History in Hawaii:

Hydroides dirampha was collected in Hawaii as early as 1905 (Ziborwius 1971), and is known from many locations around Oahu, including Pearl and Honolulu harbors (Straughan 1969; Coles 1999). In 2003, it was collected in Nauwilwili Harbor, Kauai, and Hilo Harbor, Hawaii (Coles et al. 2004).

Invasion History Elsewhere in the World:

Hydroides dirampha has a broad distribution in the Indo-West Pacific, from the Suez Canal (Wehe and Feige 2002) to the Bay of Bengal, India (Rajagopal et al. 1997), the Philippines(Morch 1863, cited by Zibrowius 1971), and China from Hong Kong to the Bohai Sea (Wang and Huang 1993; Huang 2001). Imajima (1978) found it on islands at the mouth of Sagami Bay, Japan in 1977, and reported it as new to the Japanese fauna. It does seem to be a new introduction to Australia, where it was first found in a port survey of Port Kembla and Sydney Harbor, New South Wales in 1998 (Australian Museum Business Services 2002), but it has been long established in New Zealand (as H. cumingii, Morch 1863, cited by Zibrowius 1971).

Hydroides dirampha is considered one of the earlier invaders in the Mediterranean, first collected in the harbor of Naples in 1870 (as H. lunifera, Clarapede 1870, cited by Zibrowius 1971). Our records are from the central Mediterranean (Tyrrhenian Sea- Naples, Cittevecchia, Palermo, the north coast of Tunisia - Zibrowius 1971; Zibrowius 1978) and the eastern Mediterranean (Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey- Zibrowius 1971; Bitar and Kouli-Bitar 2001; Cinar 2006; Ben-Eliahu and ten Hove 2011).

On the Pacific Coast of Mexico, H. dirampha was collected at La Paz, on the Gulf of California in 1986 (Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2003) and at Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico in 2004 (Bastida-Zavala 2008).

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Description

Hydroides dirampha secretes a calcareous tube, as do other serpulid polychaetes. Serpulids have a feathery crown of modified prostomial palps, called radioles (the prostomium is the first segment, projecting above the mouth). The radioles can be folded and withdrawn into the tube. One of the radioles is modified to form an operculum, which acts as a plug when the animal contracts. The peristomium (segment behind the mouth) is folded back to form a collar, which bears uniramous parapodia, with a distinctive set of collar chaetae, with spines or serrations. The collar is the first of seven thoracic chaeta-bearing segments (chaetigers). The subsequent segments have biramous parapodia. The dorsal branch of the parapodium is called the notopodium; the ventral is the neuropodium. Chaetae in the two branches and along the body can vary greatly in their morphology, which can be critical in the taxonomy of serpulids (Description from: Barnes 1983; Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2002).

The tube of H. dirampha is white, and 1.4-2.8 mm in diameter. The tubes all have transverse ridges, and sometimes have longitudinal ridges. Peristomes (flaring openings) are sometimes present at the mouth of the tube. The branchial (gill) crown consists of 18-23 radioles each on the left and right on either side of the mouth. It comprises about 1/8 of the worm's length. The operculum is roughly funnel-shaped, with 28-33 radii, each with pointed tips, a concave distal surface, and with a circular row of 6 outwardly curved terminal spines. The peduncle is cylindrical. The grooves between the radii usually are about 1/3 of the funnel length. The spines are longer than the radii, and T-shaped, with expanded tips, and have a single spinule at the base. The verticil (ring of distal spines) lacks a central tooth. The thorax consists of 7 segments. There are two kinds of collar setae, thicker bayonet chaetae, with two teeth at their base and hair-like (limbate). The subsequent thoracic segments bear short, rasp-like chaetae, called uncinae, and limbate chaetae. The abdomen has about 72 segments (43-97, n=5). The overall length is about 20 mm (17-24, n=5). The worm is light brown to pale yellow overall, while the operculum is light to dark gray. Radioles of Israeli specimens had brown and white bands. (Description from: Imajima 1978; Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2002; Cinar 2006; Ben-Eliahu and ten Hove 2011).

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Taxonomy

Ecology

General:

Life History – The serpulid polychaete Hydroides dirampha feeds by extending its feathery gills, and trapping plankton in the water column, which are transported by cilia to the mouth. The sexes are separate, as in most serpulids. The larvae are planktotrophic, and spend about 10-15 days in the plankton at 22⁰C, with development being slower at low food levels. In experiments, larvae from high food treatments had better survival when transferred to the field (a harbor near Brisbane, Australia) than those from low food treatments (Allen and Marshall 2010).

Ecology – The salinity range of H. dirampha in the tropical West Atlantic was found to be 31-37 PSU (Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2002), but it occurs in the Great Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah on the Suez Canal, where salinities can exceed 40 PSU (Ghobashy and Ghobashy 2010). Based on its occurrence in the southeastern US, and the northern shore of the Mediterranean, it appears to be capable of surviving cool winters, but its temperature tolerance is unknown. While H. dirampha often forms dense aggregations on surfaces, it is not known to form reefs. It secretes a calcareous tube, often irregularly coiled, on hard surfaces such as rocks, pilings, floats, shells, coral, and ships’ hulls.

Food:

Phytoplankton, detritus

Trophic Status:

Suspension Feeder

SusFed

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Habitats

General Habitat	Marinas & Docks	None
General Habitat	Unstructured Bottom	None
General Habitat	Coral reef	None
General Habitat	Vessel Hull	None
General Habitat	Rocky	None
General Habitat	Canals	None
Salinity Range	Polyhaline	18-30 PSU
Salinity Range	Euhaline	30-40 PSU
Tidal Range	Subtidal	None
Vertical Habitat	Epibenthic	None

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Tolerances and Life History Parameters

Maximum Salinity (‰)	40	Ghobashy and Ghobashy 2005
Minimum Reproductive Salinity	20	Experimental, larval development Liu et al. 2020
Maximum Reproductive Salinity	32	Experimental, larval development Liu et al. 2020
Maximum Length (mm)	24	Bastida-Zavala and ten Hove 2002
Broad Temperature Range	None	Warm temperate-Tropical
Broad Salinity Range	None	Polyhaline-Euhaline

General Impacts

The serpulid tubeworm Hydroides dirampha is a widespread fouling organism and has been reported on ships and buoys (reported as H. lunulifera, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1952). However, its impacts on shipping have not been specifically studied.

Fisheries- Hydroides dirampha was a significant source of fouling on aquaculture cages near Hong Kong (Wang and Huang 1993).

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Regional Impacts

NWP-2	None		Economic Impact	Fisheries
Fouling of aquaculture cages (Wang and Huang 1993; Sun et al. 2012)

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