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The global invader Paracerceis sculpta (Isopoda: Sphaeromatidae) has extended its range to the Azores Archipelago

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Abstract

The occurrence of Paracerceis sculpta (Holmes, 1904) in the Macaronesia biogeographical region is reported for the first time. This isopod, native from the northeastern Pacific region, has probably been transported as hull fouling, hiding in either niche areas of vessels or associated with fouling bryozoans. Specimens of P. sculpta were collected from bryozoans or other fouling organisms colonizing the marina structures. From the three distinct sexually mature male morphs of P. sculpta, only the larger was found, confirming the absence of the two smaller male morphs in an introduced population. Paracerceis sculpta is the first non-indigenous marine isopod reported in the Azores Archipelago. Environmental impacts on non-indigenous areas for this isopod are unknown; nevertheless, the occurrence of P. sculpta in the Azores Archipelago corresponds to the link between both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and is evidence of the ongoing processes of biotic homogenization of marine communities on a global scale.

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Acknowledgments

Alice Lodola and Aylin Ulman are acknowledged for contributing the P. sculpta material from ports of the Mediterranean Sea. This project was jointly funded by the Direção Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia (DRCT)—‘Açores: Stopover for Marine Alien Species?’—ASMAS (M2.1.2/I/032/2011) and by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and by Portuguese National Funds through the FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology under UID/BIA/50027/2013 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Via S. Epifanio 14, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Agnese Marchini & Jasmine Ferrario

  2. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores, Universidade dos Açores, 9501-801, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    Ana C. Costa & Joana Micael

  3. Bird Ecology Lab, Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Vadivia, Chile

    Joana Micael

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  1. Agnese Marchini
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Correspondence to Joana Micael.

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Communicated by S. S. M. Kaiser

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Marchini, A., Costa, A.C., Ferrario, J. et al. The global invader Paracerceis sculpta (Isopoda: Sphaeromatidae) has extended its range to the Azores Archipelago. Mar Biodiv 48, 1001–1007 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-017-0674-7

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