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A re-evaluation of morphological characters of the invasive ascidian Corella eumyota reveals two different species at the tip of South America and in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

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Abstract

The native solitary ascidian Corella eumyota Traustedt, 1882) is commonly found in the Southern Hemisphere in the cold-temperate waters of the Subantarctic and Antarctic regions. Its recent spread into the Northern Hemisphere throughout the NE Atlantic gave the species the status of invasive. Together with its widespread distribution, reports on its wide variability (several distinct morphological characters, genetic discontinuities and also possible misidentifications) cast doubt on the taxonomic status of different populations of this species. This work, based on the observation, quantification and analysis of specific morphological characters in specimens collected at five different localities of South America and Antarctica, strongly indicates that there are two different species: C. eumyota from South America and Corella antarctica Sluiter, 1905) from Antarctica, which has been till now considered a junior synonym of the former. The species clearly differ in the arrangement of the gonadal ducts, the size of the larvae and the shape of the anus, among other characters. Morphological variation displays a defined, discrete grouping supporting a clear differentiation into two species. This result shows the need for careful inspection of specimens to avoid wrong interpretations in a context of changes of marine biota due to biological invasions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Dr. Gretchen Lambert for her kind help and valuable advice on gonadal duct observation, and through her to Dr. Claus Nielsen (Rijksmuseum in Copenhagen, Denmark) for the translation, from Danish to English, of the original description of C. eumyota and also to Biol. Cristian Lagger by their dedicated and thorough review of the manuscript and valuable comments that greatly improved this work. We also thank Ward Appeltans (WoRMS) and Chilekwa Chisala (Flanders Marine Institute Library) for helping us get the original Traustedt description (1882). Finally, we thank all the reviewers whose recommendations and observations have led to a great improvement of this manuscript. This study was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Dirección Nacional del Antártico (DNA)/Instituto Antártico Argentino (IAA) and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC). This work was partially funded by PICTO 2010-0019 (ANPCyT-DNA), PIP CONICET No 11220100100089, SECyT (05/I602), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, ECLIPSE (Total Foundation), PICT 20621 and Proyecto ARG/PNUD ARG 02/018 Subproyecto AB-54. TWAS Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research and Advanced Training and CONICET provided support to Evangelina Scwindt for the visit at the P. Universidad Católica, Chile.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecología Marina, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Av. Vélez Sarsfield 299, X5000JJC, Córdoba, Argentina

    Gastón Alurralde & Marcos Tatián

  2. Museo Provincial de Ciencias Naturales “Dr. Arturo Umberto Illía”, Córdoba, Argentina

    Gastón Alurralde

  3. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)/Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Córdoba, Argentina

    Luciana Torre & Marcos Tatián

  4. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT), Puerto Madryn, Argentina

    Evangelina Schwindt

  5. Núcleo Milenio de Conservación Marina, F. C. Biológicas, P. Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile

    Juan C. Castilla

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  1. Gastón Alurralde
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  2. Luciana Torre
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  3. Evangelina Schwindt
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  4. Juan C. Castilla
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  5. Marcos Tatián
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Correspondence to Gastón Alurralde.

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Alurralde, G., Torre, L., Schwindt, E. et al. A re-evaluation of morphological characters of the invasive ascidian Corella eumyota reveals two different species at the tip of South America and in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Polar Biol 36, 957–968 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-013-1319-3

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