New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Short communication: First record of a wild population of the tropical snail Melanoides tuberculata in New Zealand natural waters

I. C. Duggan*

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited
P.O. Box 11 115
Hamilton, New Zealand
*Present address: Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. email: iduggan@uwindsor.ca

Abstract   The thiarid snail Melanoides tuberculata (Müller, 1774), native to the Middle East and East Africa, is recorded from the wild in New Zealand for the first time from a geothermally influenced stream at Golden Springs, near Taupo. Introduction was most likely the result of one or more releases from tropical aquaria, although the timing of release is uncertain. Specimens were collected at temperatures of 29.0 and 30.4°C, and survival at these sites is likely dependent on the elevated stream temperatures. The possible spread of this species to other habitats, and potential effects on native thermal water communities, are discussed.

Keywords   Melanoides tuberculata; Thiaridae; exotic species; tropical aquaria; biosecurity

M01091 Received 6 December 2001; accepted 21 May 2002; Published 14 November
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2002, Vol. 36: 825-829
0028-8330/02/3604-0825 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2002

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