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All non-indigenous species were introduced recently? The case study of Cassiopea (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) in Brazilian waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2016

André C. Morandini*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n. 101, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil
Sergio N. Stampar
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Faculdade de Ciências e Letras, Universidade Estadual Paulista ‘Júlio de Mesquita Filho’, Av. Dom Antônio, n. 2100, Assis, SP 19806-900, Brazil
Maximiliano M. Maronna
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n. 101, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil
Fábio L. Da Silveira
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n. 101, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to:A.C. Morandini, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, n. 101, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil Email: acmorand@ib.usp.br
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Abstract

Upside-down jellyfish (genus Cassiopea) can be found in tropical coastal waters worldwide. Until now reports of the genus from Brazilian waters have been scant. We report here medusae and scyphistomae collected from Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro state. Although we could not unambiguously identify the material using morphological criteria, genetic sequence data (COI) indicate that the Brazilian jellyfishes are genetically similar to those from Bermuda, Hawaii and Florida, which are related to specimens from the Red Sea (Cassiopea andromeda). We hypothesize that the presence of C. andromeda in Brazil is due to an invasion event, as the scyphistomae were found growing over the known invasive ascidian Styela plicata. Estimation of divergence time between Brazil (Cabo Frio) and Florida/Bermuda populations is that it occurred at the beginning of ship movement to South America.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2016 
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Map of Brazil, showing records of Cassiopea Péron & Lesueur, 1810 specimens. Squares refer only to polyp records (1–2), triangles refer to medusa photographic records (4–7), star refers to sampling site at Cabo Frio (3), numbers after each symbol refer to date of first sighting in each area: (1) Imbé (29°58′26″S 50°08′18″W; February 2005), Rio Grande do Sul state; (2) São Sebastião (23°49′41″S 45°25′22″W; March 1999), São Paulo state; (3) Cabo Frio (22°52′32″S 42°01′07″W; October 2008), Rio de Janeiro state; (4) Aracruz (19°50′07″S 40°03′28″W; August 2007), Espírito Santo state; (5) Salvador (12°57′26″S 38°31′50″W; February 2012), Bahia state; (6) Macau (5°03′53″S 36°30′18″W; February 2011), Rio Grande do Norte state; (7) Itarema (02°52′48″S 39°54′15″W; June 2012), Ceará state.

Figure 1

Fig. 2. Cassiopea andromeda (Forskål, 1775) scyphistoma just after collection, note long stalk and planuloid budding at the base of calyx; polyp ~5 mm long.

Figure 2

Fig. 3. Left panel – Cladogram representation for maximum likelihood tree (ML) of Cassiopea species with support values on branches (as in figure order: SH-aLRT/maximum parsimony's tree bootstrap result/maximum likelihood bootstrap) * = less than 50; in cases where figure permits, ML bootstrap values are below their respective branch. Right panel: phylogram representation only for same result (ML phylogram).

Figure 3

Table 1. Comparison of available characters from the literature of the 10 valid/nominal species of the genus Cassiopea Péron & Lesueur, 1810 (species list from Mayer, 1910; Kramp, 1961; Gershwin et al., 2010). n = several appendages, not specified on the papers. For mouth arms we are considering number of branches, type of branching and general shape, according to the descriptions.

Figure 4

Table 2. Estimates of average evolutionary divergence over sequence pairs within and between ‘species’ as defined by Holland et al. (2004). Analyses were conducted using the Kimura 2-parameter model. The rate variation among sites was modelled with a gamma distribution (shape parameter = 1). All positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated (total positions in the final dataset: 554). Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA5 (Drummond et al., 2011). n/c = not possible to estimate evolutionary distances. Figure 3 lists the individuals used in the comparison as well as their location.

Figure 5

Fig. 4. Photographic records of Cassiopea Péron & Lesueur, 1810 specimens from Brazilian coast (A–F). (A) Itarema, Ceará state (photo Carlos H.P. Marques & Yara G. Oliveira); (B) Macau, Rio Grande do Norte state (photo Thelma L.P. Dias); (C) Salvador, Bahia state (photo Claudio L.S. Sampaio); (D) Aracruz, Espírito Santo state (photo Oberdan J. Pereira); (E–F) Cassiopea andromeda (Forskål, 1775) from Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro state (photos by André C. Morandini and Sergio N. Stampar).

Figure 6

Fig. 5. Medusae of Cassiopea andromeda (Forskål, 1775) at a branch of Itajuru Channel (Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil) during December 2008. Note first author as scale (~1.65 m).