The Species of Limnoria, a Genus of Wood- Boring Isopoda
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Annals and Magazine of Natural History Series 8 ISSN: 0374-5481 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnah14 XLIII.—The species of Limnoria, a genus of wood- boring Isopoda Chas Chilton M.A. D.Sc. LL.D. M.B. C.M. F.L.S. To cite this article: Chas Chilton M.A. D.Sc. LL.D. M.B. C.M. F.L.S. (1914) XLIII.—The species of Limnoria, a genus of wood-boring Isopoda , Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 13:76, 380-389, DOI: 10.1080/00222931408693499 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222931408693499 Published online: 15 Sep 2009. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tnah14 Download by: [University of Florida] Date: 20 June 2016, At: 01:25 380 Dr. C. Chilton on XLIII.--The Species of Limnoris, a Genus of Wood-bor(,g lsopoda. By Cnxs. CHILTOS, M.A., D.Se., LL.D., M.B., C.M., F.L.S., Professor of Biology, Canterbury Colleg% :N.Z. [Plate XYII.] O~ July 29th, 1913, I received from the authorities of tile Auckland Harbour Board a piece of timber that was being destroyed by a marine borer, with the request that I would see if the borer was the "gribble," Limnoria llgnorum, Rathke. An examination at once showed that the borer was certainly a species of Limnoria ; the decision as to whether it was the European species or not required some care, as in 1883" I had described from Lyttelton Barbour, New Zealand, another species, Limnorla segnls, which in general appearance was extremely like L. lignovum , though differing from it in the characters of some of the mouth- parts and living on seaweed instead of boring into wood. A detailed examination and a comparison with specimens from Plymouth, England, showed, however, that the animal boring into the wood in Auckland Harbour was indeed L. lignorum. This conclusion, moreover, was confirmed by the fact that, accompanying the Limnoria~ there were also some specimens of an Amphipodan borer; which, on com- parison with specimens fi'om Plymouth, England, proved to to be identical with Chelm'a te~'ebrans, Philippi, r a species associated with Limnoria liynorurn in Europe J'. I hese two species must evidently have been introduced into New Zealand, probably in some old wooden vessel, and they thus afEord an example of the accidental dispersal of marine Crustaeea by means of ships, additional to those already recorded by me (1911, p. 131). It cannot be ascertained for certain how long ago these two Crustaeea were introduced into Auckland Harbour, but Downloaded by [University of Florida] at 01:25 20 June 2016 in all probability it was many years ago. 2'hey appear to find the locality favourable, for they were extremely numerous in the samples of wood that were sent down to me, and they seem to be causing rapid destruction, both of the softer timbers, such as Kauri, and even of harder kinds, such as Totara. * The references are made by the year of publication to the list at the end of the paper. ~f It should be remembered that at Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, another species, Zimnoria andrewsl, is associated with a different species of Chdura, i. e. C. insul~e~ Caiman (see Calman, 1910~ p. 182). t~e ~mle~t ~Lim~ia. 351 To ascertain if tile Lfmnorla o~red elsewhere in New Zealand, l applied to Mr. Cyrus Williams, ~ngine~r to the Lyttelton Harbour Board, who most obligingly sent me a specimen of an ironbark pile, tile outer part of which was partially destroyed. Examination showed that this destruc- tion also bad been caused by Limnorla liynorum, though in this particular case it appeared to be unaccompanied by Chegura terebrans. Mr. Williams stated that in Lytteltou Harbour tlle animal could perhaps hardly be called a borer, as it seemed to operate only on tile surface, removing about one inch from the outside of an ironbark pile in about thirty years, though with softer timber its operations were much more rapid. Later on, in December 1913, I found the same species, Limnoria lignorum, boring into piles in Akaroa tiarbour, though here again it did not appear to be accom- panied by the Chelura. Probably it will be found that L~mnoria lignorum has bean similarly introduced into many other harbours. In a paper on the marine wood-borers of Australia, read at tile Melbourne Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advance- ment of Science, in January 1900, Mr. Chas. Hedley (1901, p. 237) stated that neither Limno~'ia ligno~.um nor Chelura terebrans had up to that time been recorded by naturalists from Australasian seas, but in a footnot% added on the 14th Jun% 1901, as his paper was passing through tim press, he states that Mr. T. Whitelegge had identified L. Uynorum from timber fi'om a floating jetty at Circular Quay, and again from part of the hull of a ferry-boat plying in Sydney Harbour. In the timber, both from Auckland and from Lyttelton, I found, along with the Limnoria, numerous specimens of another Amphipod, ~' CoroThlum contractum," G. M. Thom- son (1881, p. 220). The CoroTMum, however, did not appear to be boring into the timber, but to be merely taking advantage of the decay caused by the Limnoria, and thereby Downloaded by [University of Florida] at 01:25 20 June 2016 securing a suitable dwelling-place and probably also food. D,'. Macdonald has (1875, p. 67) described a similar associa- tion in England, where Tanais vittatus was found in the holes bored by Limnoria lignorum and Chelura terebrans. In this paper I do not propose to deal with the borer from the economic aspect; some details of the damage done in Australasia by these Crustacea and by other borers is given in Mr. ttedley's paper. The examination of the specimens, however, necessitated a comparison with L. segnis, a species which does not bore into wood, but lives on seaweed, patti- 382 Dr. C. Chilton on cularly on the bmnchlng holdfasts of Maceocystls. This rendered necessary also an examination of the characters of the other species of Limnoeia that have been described during recent years, and has led to one or two results which are perhaps worthy of being placed on record. I have had for examination numerous specimens of L. lignorum and of L. segnis , and I have also been able to examine two speci- mens from the South Orkney Islands which appear to belong to L. antarctica, Proffer. These were found among tile "residues" of some Amphipodan collections made by tile 'Scotia' Expedition ill 1903, and were presumably taken free, i. e. not boring into wood. In 1904~ the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing (1904, p. 714) enumerated four species known at that time, with the characters that appeared to distinguish them. Since then two other species have been described, making six species in all. These species are :-- I. Limnoria lignorum (Rathke), 1799. Length 5 mm. Wood-borer, abundant in Europe and on the eastern coast of :North America, also recorded from tile Pacific and from San Diego, California. 2. L. segnis, Chilton, 1883. Length 5 ram. Speeie~ living on seaweed and not boring into wood~ Lyttelton and Akaroa ]ffarbom's, New Zealand. 3. L. antarctica, Pfeffer, 1887. Length 4:'5 ram. Found in holes bored in seaweed, South Georgia; also taken at the South Orkneys. 4. L. pf~fferi, Stebbing, 1904. Length 3"5 mm. Found in rotten wood in lagoon, Minikoi, Indian Ocean. 5. L.japonica, Richardson, 1909. Length 5 mm. Taken from crevices in water-logged fragment of bambo% Japan. 6. L. and~'ewsl, Calman, 1910. Length about 2 mm. Boring in piles, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Downloaded by [University of Florida] at 01:25 20 June 2016 These six speeies form a very natural group, and are all very much alike in size, general appearance, and in the general form and structure of the different appendages. They seem to differ mainly in the proportions of some of the mouth-parts and of the other appendages. The chief points that have been used to differentiate them are the shape and size of the epipod o£ the maxillipeds, the character of the palp of the mandible, the relative size of the rami of the uropods and their proportion to ttte peduncle, and the presence or absence of a comb-like spine on the propod of the first gnathopod ; other distinctions lmve in certain eases the gpeeies of Limnoria. 383 been drawn from the shape of the body, the propotgions of its dit~erent segments, and the presence or absence of tubercles on the dorsal surface of the pleon. Lfmnoris l;9norum has been fully described by Harger, Sars (1897, p. 76), and others, and its characters are pretty well known. L. antarctlea was described in great detail by Pt'efFer in 1887, and in the descriptions of L. pfeff~i and L. andrewsi special notice has been taken of the characters distinguishing the species. Of L. segnis only the short original description has been published, and it will be con- venient to consider its characters here somewhat more fully attd with special reference to the points mentioned above. Limnoria segnis , Ohilton. Limnoria s~nis, Chilton, 1883, p. 76, pl. iL fig. 1; Stobbing, 1904, p. 714. General Description and Comparison wit)i otI~er 8peeies.~ The general appearance is. in close agreement with L.