Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A New Species of the Amphipod Melita Leach, 1814 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae for the Azov-Black Sea Basin

  • Published:
Russian Journal of Biological Invasions Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Amphipods of the genus Melita (Melitidae, Amphipoda) were found in the Kerch Strait (Black Sea) in September 2019 and March, July, and November 2020. The material was collected in the formations formed by the polychaete Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Fauvel, 1923). The depth ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 m. The individuals found in this site do not belong to the species Melita palmata (Montagu, 1804) known in the Black Sea, but they correspond to the morphological characters of the genus Melita. The species discovered is as close as possible to the species Melita setiflagella Yamato, 1988, whose natural range is located in the estuaries of rivers in Japan. The invasive range covers coastal waters of the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the United States, and the Atlantic coast of Argentina. Presumably, this invader was accidentally introduced into the Black Sea with ballast waters or by transfer with fouling of ship surfaces. M. cf. setiflagella formed a stable self-reproducing population in the Kerch Strait. Therefore, it is important to monitor the distribution of this amphipod in order to predict the consequences for endemic species and local ecosystems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7.
Fig. 8.
Fig. 9.
Fig. 10.
Fig. 11.
Fig. 12.
Fig. 13.
Fig. 14.
Fig. 15.
Fig. 16.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 18.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Coblentz, B.E., Exotic organisms: A dilemma for conservation biology, Conserv. Biol., 1990, pp. 261–265.

  2. Copilaş-Ciocianu, D., Berchi, G., and Mumladze, L., First survey of shallow-water amphipoda along the Georgian Black Sea coast reveals new faunistic records and the unexpected Atlantic invader Melita nitida, Mediterr. Mar. Sci., 2020, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 460–463. https://doi.org/10.12681/mms.22844

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Faasse, M. and van Moorsel, G., The North-American amphipods, Melita nitida Smith, 1873 and Incisocalliope aestuarius (Watling and Maurer, 1973) (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Gammaridea), introduced to the western Scheldt estuary (the Netherlands), Aquat. Ecol., 2003, vol. 37, pp. 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022120729031

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Fashchuk, D.Ya. and Petrenko, O.A., The Kerch Strait: A highly important transport artery and fishery region of the Azov–Black Sea basin, Yug Rossii: Ekol. Razvitie, 2008, no. 1, pp. 15–22.

  5. Greze, I.I., Higher crustaceans: Amphipods, Bokoplavy, in Fauna Ukrainy (The Fauna of Ukraine), Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1985, vol. 26, no. 5.

  6. Grintsov, V. and Sezgin, M., Manual for Identification of Amphipoda from the Black Sea, Sevastopol: DigitPrint, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Jarrett, N.E. and Bousfield, E.L., The amphipod superfamily Hazdioidea on the Pacific Coast of North America: Family Melitidae. Part 1: The Melita group: Systematics and distributional ecology, Amphipacifica, 1996, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 7–74.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kim, C.-Bae, Kim, W., and Kim, H.-Soo, Three species of the genus Melita from Korea (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Melitidae), Korean J. Syst. Zool. Special Issue, 1992, no. 3, pp. 113–120.

  9. Knipovich, N.M., Hydrological research in the Black Sea, Tr. Azovo-Chernomorsk. Eksped., Moscow: Tsentr. Nauchno-Issle. Inst. Rybn. Khoz., 1932, vol. 10.

  10. Krapp-Schickel, T. and Sket, B., Melita mirzajanii n. sp. (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae), a puzzling new member of the Caspian fauna, Zootaxa, 2015, pp. 248–262. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3948.2.6

  11. Matsumasa, M. and Kurihara, S., Distribution patterns of benthic small crustaceans and the environmental factors in brackish shallow-water lagoon, Gamo-Lagoon, Benthos Res., 1988, nos. 33–34, pp. 33–41.

  12. Mills, E.L., Noteworthy Amphipoda (Crustacea) in the collection of the Yale Peabody Museum, Postilla, 1964, no. 79.

  13. Mooney, H.A. and Cleland, E.E., The evolutionary impact of invasive species, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2001, vol. 98, pp. 5446–5451.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Revkov, N.K., The taxonomic composition of benthic fauna at the Crimean coast of the Black Sea, in Sovremennoe sostoyanie bioraznoobraziya pribrezhnykh vod Kryma (chernomorskii sektor) (Current State of Biodiversity in Coastal Waters of the Crimea, the Black Sea Sector), Eremeev, V.N. and Gaevskaya, A.V., Eds., Sevastopol: EKOSI-Gidrofizika, 2003, pp. 209–218.

  15. Rikke, K., Preisler, K., Wasson, W., Wolff, J., Megan, C., and Tyrrell, D., Invasions of еstuaries vs the adjacent open coast: A global perspective, in Biological Invasions in Marine Ecosystems: Ecological Studies, Rilov, G. and Crooks, J.A., Eds., Berlin: Springer, 2008, pp. 587–617

    Google Scholar 

  16. Shea, K. and Chesson, P., Community ecology theory as a framework for biological invasions, Trends Ecol. Evol., 2002, vol. 17, pp. 170–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Wilcove, D., Rothstein, D., Dubow, J., Philips, A., and Losos, E., Assessing the relative importance of habitat destruction, alien species, pollution, over-exploitation, and disease, BioScience, 1998, vol. 48, pp. 607–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. World Register of Marine Species. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=101679. Accessed March 12, 2020.

  19. Yamato, S., Two species of the genus Melita (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from brackish waters in Japan, Publ. SetoMar. Biol. Lab., 1988, vol. 33, nos. 1–3, pp. 79–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Yamauch, T., Ariyama, H., Mukai, T., and Yamauch, K., Gammaridean fauna on a red alga Gracilaria asiatica and a green alga Enteromorpha prolifera in a brackish lake, Nakaumi, Western Honshu, Japan, Jpn. J. Limnol., 2006, vol. 67, pp. 223–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to the staff of the Federal Research Center of the Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Russian Academy of Sciences, V.G. Kopii, D.V. Podzorova, S.E. Litvinyuk, A.S. Kandaurov for help in collecting material.

Funding

This work was carried out within the framework of state assignments of the Federal Research Center of the Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Russian Academy of Sciences, nos. 121030100028-0 and 121030300149-0.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Research Center Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Russian Academy of Sciences, 299011, Sevastopol, Russia

    V. A. Grintsov, L. V. Bondarenko & V. A. Timofeev

Authors
  1. V. A. Grintsov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. L. V. Bondarenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. V. A. Timofeev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to V. A. Grintsov, L. V. Bondarenko or V. A. Timofeev.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement of the welfare of animals. The article does not contain any studies involving animals in experiments performed by any of the authors.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Grintsov, V.A., Bondarenko, L.V. & Timofeev, V.A. A New Species of the Amphipod Melita Leach, 1814 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Melitidae for the Azov-Black Sea Basin. Russ J Biol Invasions 13, 191–202 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2075111722020060

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2075111722020060

Keywords:

Search

Navigation