Tracking the origins of the introduced terrestrial amphipod, Puhuruhuru patersoni, on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island

ABSTRACT

The terrestrial amphipod Puhuruhuru patersoni (Amphipoda: Talitridae) was discovered on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island in 1992. The species is only known to naturally occur on New Zealand’s South Island and some associated offshore islands. The possible routes by which the species was introduced to Macquarie Island have previously been considered based on morphology and historic activities between New Zealand and Macquarie Island. Here, we sampled across the known range for P. patersoni and generated mtDNA COI data for these specimens to investigate the likely origin of the Macquarie Island incursion. Our results showed high genetic diversity across the native range and substantially lower genetic diversity on Macquarie Island. Additionally, our phylogenetic reconstructions suggested that the source of the introduction to Macquarie Island is likely to have been from the southern region of New Zealand’s South Island.

KEYWORDS:

• Amphipoda
• invasive species
• introduction
• Talitridae
• terrestrial Crustacea

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out as part of a survey to map the distribution of introduced terrestrial invertebrates on Macquarie Island (ASAC 2397). We thank the Australian Antarctic Division for financial and logistic support and are grateful for the support of the staff and access to facilities on Macquarie Island. We would also like to thank Penny Greenslade and Paul Sunnucks for valuable discussions, and Robert Edwards, Peter Hudson and Murray Potter for assistance with fieldwork on Macquarie Island. Thanks also to Peter for the images used in Figures 1 and 2. We are also grateful to the Editors and two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study received financial and logistic support provided by Australian Antarctic Division (ASAC2397). This manuscript was supported in part from the Australian Research Council (ARC) funding under the SRIEAS (grant agreement no. SR200100005) (Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future).