Untangling Australian Ficopomatus, a genus of invasive brackish water tubeworms

Presented by Nina Knowles

Honours Student, University of Sydney

Supervisors: Prof Simon Ho (USyd), Dr Elena Kupriyanova (AM)

Ficopomatus Southern, 1921 is a genus of brackish-water tubeworms of the annelid family Serpulidae. Of the six described species in this genus, F. enigmaticus from France and F. uschakovi from Sri Lanka have been reported in Australia. Both are invasive, but their native ranges and invasion pathways are poorly understood. A previous study has identified three clades within F. enigmaticus in Southern Australia. One of these clades, comprising individuals from the Pambula region of southern NSW, morphologically resembles F. uschakovi. Nina investigated the phylogenetic relationships within Ficopomatus world-wide, including Australian specimens morphologically similar to F. uschakovi, using mitochondrial CYTB and nuclear 18S genes.

Nina’s results confirm that F. uschakovi is a monophyletic group comprising closely related putative species. These are F. uschakovi sensu strico from Sri Lanka and from invaded localities as well as a clade from Vellar Estuary, India and two Australian clades from Port Darwin and Pambula. This was further supported by species delimitation analyses of the CYTB data. Morphological examination using light and scanning electron microscopy was used to describe the clade from Pambula as a new Australian species. Further research is required to understand the invasive status of the remaining undescribed clades within the complex.