Notes on the Distribution of Wood-Boring Teredines In the

Tropical Indo-Pacific

V. V. SRINIVASANl

EXTENSIVE WORK has been carried out on thetaxonomy of the Teredinidae of the east coastof India, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands,and other areas in the Pacific (Becker , 1958;Daniel, 1956; N air, 1961 2 ; Rajagopal, 1964;Saraswathi, 1964 ; Sivickis, 1928; Bartsch, 1921,1922, 1927 ; Moll and Roch, 1931; Roch, 1935,1940, 19 55a, 1955b ; Miller, 1924 ; Edmondson,1941 1942 1946, 1959) . Recently Turner(1 966) , in her "Catalogue of the Teredinidae,"has redefined the genera and proposed a newsystem of classification . During a..recent surveXof the Teredinidae of the Hawaiian Islands Itwas possible for the author to collect mater ial,study Dr. Edmondson's types, an? ~rav.: con­clusions on the possible mode of distribution ofthe teredines in the tropical Indo-Pacific area.

The study at Hawaii was based on collectionsat different sites on the island of Oahu, theisland of Kauai and from Dr. C. H . Edmond­son's type collections at the Bishop Museum inHonolulu. Also panels of Douglas fir and whitepine were suspended at various d~pths at twodifferent sites-one at Kewalo BaSIn, H onoluluand the other at Coconut Island, Kaneohe-andteredines were collected after an immersionperiod of about 3 months. Material from theMadras coast was collected from drift logswashed ashore on the Madras beach (Mylaporeand Tripl icane areas) , from floating pieces ofwood from underwater wooden structures likepiles' and catamarans, and from test plankswhich were submerged in Madras harbour dur­ing 196 5-1967. Specimens collecte~ we~e identi­fied using Turner's revised classification. Thefollowing are the species that occur on t? eMadras and Hawaiian coasts. Of the 18 speCIes(11 of them new species) described by Edmond-

1 Marine Organ isms Scheme, Zoological ResearchLaboratory, University of Madras, Madras-5, India.Part of th is wor k was carr ied out whi le the authorheld a F.A.O. (UN ) fellowship in 1966. Manuscriptreceived April S, 1967.

2 Refer to Na ir (1 961) for earlier papers.

son, only 12 seem to be valid. Also, 27 species ofteredines have been described from the Madrascoast and these refer only to 13 valid species.The origin al names as well as synonyms (* fromthe Madras coast, ° from the Pacific islands)have been listed here.

Bankia carinata Gray*Bankia (Bankiella) edm ondsoni N air*Bankia (Bankiella) indica N air

Bankia campannelata Moll and Roch*Bankia (Bankia) bengalensis N air

Bank ia bipennata Turton*Bankia (PI1t1nulella) lineata N air*Bankia (Neobank ia) lineata N air*Bankia (Neobankia) den ticuloserrata Daniel

Lyrodus pedicellatus Quatrefages*Teredo (Teredo) indica N air*T eredo (Lyrodtts) malaccana Roch*Teredo (Teredo ) madrasensis N air°T eredo ( Teredo) bonolulnensis Edmondson»Teredo (Teredops ) diegeusis and var. mid-

u/ayensis EdmondsonDicyatbijer manni Wright

*Teredo (KuphltS) manni WrightT eredora princesae Sivickis

*T eredo (Teredora) gregoryi Dall et aI.*Te redo (Teredora) minoris N air*T eredo (Dactyloteredo) died ericbseni RochvT eredo (Teredora) gregoryi Dall et aI.

N ototeredo edax Hedleyi*Teredo (Psiloteredo) tondiensis N air and

Gurumani*Te redo (Dactyloteredo) jllttingae Roch

Uperotus clauus Gmelin*Te redo (Teredora) clava Gmelin*T eredo (Teredora) uattanensis N air and

Gurumani*Teredo (Teredorav rebderi N air

Nansit om dnnlopei W right*Bankia (Naltsitora) madrasensis N air*Nausitora Ianceolata Rajagopal

T eredo f llrcifera von Martens*Teredo (Teredo) fllrcillatltS Mill er

277

278

*Teredo (Teredo) parksi var. madrasensisNair

vT eredo (Teredo) parksi BartschvTe redo (Corunteredoy beusoni Edmondson

T eredothyra smithi Bartsch*Teredo (Nototeredo ) nambudalaiensis N air

and Gurumani*Teredo ( Z opoteredo) bengalem is N air

T eredothyra excavata Jeffreys*Teredo (Teredothyra) linearis N airvTeredo (Teredothryra) palaltem is Edmond­

son°Teredo (Teredo thyra ) snbicensis Edmond­

sonBaneia bipalmulata Lamarck

*Bnneia (Bankia) bipalmttlata Lamarck°Ballkia (Ballkiella) sp.°Ballkia (Neobankia) bmuaiiensis Edmond­

son°Ballkia (Neobank ia) k onaensis Edmondson

N unsito ra sp.°Bankia (NatlSitora) oabnensis Edmondson

T eredo bartschi ClappvTeredo (Teredo) bartschi ClappvTeredo (Teredo) biloensis Edmondson

PACI FIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXII, Ap ril 1968

Lyrodus m edilobata EdmondsonvTere do (Conisteredo'y m edilobata Edmond­

sonT eredo triangltlaris Edmondson

vTeredo ( Cortl1lteredo ) medilobata Edmond­son

Lyrodu s affillis DeshayasvT eredo (Comltteredo) millen Dall et al.

T eredo [ulleri ClappvTered.o ( Z opoteredo ) [ulleri Clapp

T eredo clappi BartschvTeredo ( Z opoteredo) tmllii ormis Miller

From Table 1 it is clear that while 11 speciesof teredines are generally well distributed fromMadras to the Philippine coast, the others aremostly confined to H awaii and the Pacific, andare not represented in the rest of the areas. Ofthe seven species recorded from Hawaii, T.bartschi, T. clappi, and T. [nlleri seem to extendfart her and invade the Gulf of Mexico and theCaribbean while others are indigenous.

L. pedicellatus, T . princesae, T. f ltrcifera, andT . excavata are known to occur not only alongthe Madras coast, in Southeast Asia, and near

T A B L E 1

THE DISTRIB UTION O F I M PORTAN T S P ECIES O F WOOD-Bo RERS IN T HE I ;-JD:J -PACI FIC AR EA

INDON ESIA

AN D

P ACIFIC

SP ECIES MA DRAS ISLAN DS PHILIPPIN ES

Banliia carinata X X XBanlsia camp anuelata XBanlsia bip ennata X XLyrodu s pedicellatus X X XD icyatbij er 1I1al111i X XTeredora princesae X X XNototeredo edax X X XUpe rotu s clavus XN ausitora dunlopei X X XTeredo f ureife ra X XT eredotbyra smitbi X XT eredotbyra excauata X X XBanlsi« bipa lmulata X X XNausit ora sp.Te redo bartscb iLyrodus medilobataTeredo triangularisLyrodus affil1isTe redo [ulleriTe redo clappi

HAWAII

X

X

X

XXXXXXXXX

OTHE R

ISLAND S*

1,2,3,4

2,3,4,5

1,2

1,7

1,6,71,7

• The numbers in th is cnlu mn refer to spec ies reported by D r. Edmon dson from the islan d of Samoa ( I ). Can ton (2) ,John ston (3), Midway (4), Wake (5), Chri stmas (6), an d Pal myra (7).

Tered ines of Indo-Pacific-SRINIVASAN

the Phil ippine and Hawaiian islands, but alsofrom Samoa, Canton, Johnston, Midw ay, W ake,Palau, Christmas , and Palmyra islands-all inthe tropical Pacific. Hence these species arecosmopolitan in distr ibution. T. princesae wascollected from floating timber by the VityasExpedition (from station N o. 5209 in the In­dian Ocean), and identified by the author.

While most of the species reported fromMadras are from pelagic timber only a few havebeen successful in invading timbers from en­closed waters (L. pedicellnins and T . ftlrciferain Madras harbour ; L. pedicellatus, T . f llrcifer.1,B. campannelata, D . manni, and N . hedl eyi inPulicat Lake) .

It may be of inter est to note the records ofoccurrence of B. nordi Moll (Rajagopal, 1964)and B. rocbi Moll (Rajagopaliengar, 1961) forthe first time along the northeast coast of Indi aat Calcutta.

Th e apparent discontinuity in distributi on ofsome of the species in the Ind o-Pacific area isprobably due to non-availability of wood fortransportation, lack of intensive collection ef­forts, or to hydrobiological factors like tempera­ture and salinity which influence breeding. It isalso possible that adults may not be able totolerate wide ranges of temperature and salinity,and this may be a controlling factor for theirsuccessful establishment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My grateful thanks are due to Dr. G. Kr ish­nan, Director, Zoological Research Laboratory,Uni versity of Madras, and Dr. A. Purushotham,Director, Biological Research, Forest ResearchInstitute, Dehra Dun, for their encouragement.I wish to thank also Dr. Roland W. Force,Director, Bishop Museum for his unstinted helpdur ing my stay at Honolulu.

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279

--- 1927. The shipworms of the Philip­pine Islands. Bull. U.S. N atl. Mus. 100 ( 2)pt. 5:533.

BECKER, G. 1958. F.A.O. Report N o. 795 tothe Govern ment of India.

CLAPP, W . F. 1924. A new species of T eredo.T rans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 25 ( 1) :12.

DALL, W. H., P. BARTSCH, and H. F. REHDER.1938. A manual of the recent and fossilpelecypod mollusks of the Hawaiian Islands.Bul!. B.P. Bishop Mus. (Honolulu) 153:1.

DANIEL, A. 1956. A new wood-borer, Bankia(N eobankia) denticulosetrata from Madras.J. Madras Univ. 26 B(3 ) :593.

EDMONDSON, C. H . 1941. A recent shipwormsurvey in Hawaii. Sixth Pacific Science Con­gress, Proc. 3: 245.

- - - 1942. Teredinidae of H awaii. Occ. Pap.Bishop Mus. ( Honolulu) 18 :211.

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MILLER, R. C. 1924. W ood-boring mollusksfrom the Hawaiian, Samoan and Phil ippineislands. Un iv. Calif. Publ. Zool. 26: 145.

MOLL, F. 1936. Les animaux rongeurs de boissur les cotes de I'indochine. J. Conchyliol.80:296.

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N AIR, N . B. 1961. Some aspects of marine borerproblem in Indi a. J. Sci. Industr. Res. 20A(10) :584.

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1940. Die Terediniden des Mittel­meeres. Th alassia 4(3) :147.

--- 1955a. Die Holz- und Stein-zerstorendenTiere der afrikanischen Kiistengewasser . Riv.BioI. Coloniale 13:71.

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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXII, April 1968

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