A bounty of stomatopods

[Gonodactylus]

You may have noticed that I have been off line for the past couple of weeks. We were in Australia chasing stomatopods. The trades were blowing part of the time, but a few days of calm seas let us get to the outer barrier as well as work some really low spring tides. A recent near miss by a cyclone messed with the reef a bit and apparently killed quite a few Lysiosquillina. One beach that have monitored for years typically has 70-100 Lysiosquillina burrows. This time I found only 16. Evidence of mortality was finding a few large females paired with males much smaller than themselves.

Still, the collecting was good. I pulled rubble from 30 m on the outer barrier and got several G. affinis and a prize, a G. rubriguttatus. From the reef crest we collected G. annularis, Taku, and Chorisquilla tweedii. Walking the reef flats we scared up P. ciliat, G. falcatus, G. smithii, G. platysoma, G. chiragra and several octopus. From rubble we got literally hundreds of Haptosquilla trispinosa and H. glyptocercus.

G. smithii were particularly common this year. We collected over 75 in a few hours. We also collected at least 4 species new to the island and a couple that could be new to science. All in all, a good trip.

Roy

 

[JothamTheSlayer]

You may have noticed that I have been off line for the past couple of weeks. We were in Australia chasing stomatopods. The trades were blowing part of the time, but a few days of calm seas let us get to the outer barrier as well as work some really low spring tides. A recent near miss by a cyclone messed with the reef a bit and apparently killed quite a few Lysiosquillina. One beach that have monitored for years typically has 70-100 Lysiosquillina burrows. This time I found only 16. Evidence of mortality was finding a few large females paired with males much smaller than themselves.

Still, the collecting was good. I pulled rubble from 30 m on the outer barrier and got several G. affinis and a prize, a G. rubriguttatus. From the reef crest we collected G. annularis, Taku, and Chorisquilla tweedii. Walking the reef flats we scared up P. ciliat, G. falcatus, G. smithii, G. platysoma, G. chiragra and several octopus. From rubble we got literally hundreds of Haptosquilla trispinosa and H. glyptocercus.

G. smithii were particularly common this year. We collected over 75 in a few hours. We also collected at least 4 species new to the island and a couple that could be new to science. All in all, a good trip.

Roy

Good to hear Dr. Roy. Post pictures when you get a chance.

 

[stepho]

Sounds like you guys had a great time. Thats too bad about the Lysiosquillina, any idea how long it will take the population to recover?

 

[funkngroovy]

Is it possible to volunteer to your trips over here? I live in Southern Qld and get out to the reef whenever possible. What town were you working out of?

 

[Gonodactylus]

This trip was to Lizard Island.

There will be lots of larvae settling out, so recruitment is not a problem. However, the local population of Lysiosquillina will take at least 10 years to have high numbers of reproductive adults and it will probably take twice that long to get back to normal.

ROy

 

[MantisO_o]

Wow thats so wicked By any chance would you be posting any images on the mantises that you have mention that aren't on your Roy's List website?

 

[Gonodactylus]

Didn't get any photos of the Gonodactylellus (Camera malfunction). Here is the Lysio pair.

Roy

 

[MantisO_o]

Wow! Nice.

 

[gozermantis]

the size comparison is crazy! sound's like a great trip!

Quick question what do you think the oil problem in the Gulf do to the population of wennerae's and havanensis's (and any others found in the area)? I scooped up a bunch of Havanensis's really quick.

-Adam

 

[Koshmar]

What is that red streak down the back of the male?

 

[Gonodactylus]

You fell into the trap of thinking that the large animal is the male. That is the female and you are seeing her ovaries that are starting to develop. Normally, L. m pairs are almost exactly the same size. They pair at the size of the male in this photo and live another 20 years growing at the same rate. The male is the one that does all of the hunting and is therefore exposed to more risk. If the male is killed, the female attracts a new mate - often a smaller male who abandons his mate to "trade up" or a small unpaired male that is just becoming sexually mature.

Roy

 

[Gonodactylus]

I think the stomatopods in the Gulf are in serious trouble. I was one of the scientists who studied the effects of the 1986 Panamanian oil spill - up to now one of the largest tropical spills. The initial impact on the stomatopods was not that severe since the oil mostly floated over the reefs. It did kill the grass flats and mangroves and three years later, those biologically structured habitats fell apart as the root systems rotted. When that happened the oil laden sediments eroded and buried the subtidal reefs with toxic oil killing them. They still have not recovered.

One problem that we saw almost immediately was that stomatopodsl while reproducing, were not recruiting from the plankton. We don't know if they were being killed or were just avoiding the oil, but we saw no new individuals for nearly four years. Given the magnitude and depth of the Gulf spill and I suspect that wherever the oil goes, the effect on stomatopod populations will be serious if not catastrophic.

Tropical spills actually recover relatively quickly due to high temperature, UV, and bacteria. Where the oil came ashore in Panama on rock, sand and even reef, the effects were seen for only months, not years. However, where it came ashore in biologically structured habitats such as marsh, grass and mangrove, the toxic oil was quickly buried and remained deadly leaching out of the mud and then eventually eroding to recover the reefs. As we know from studying cold water spills, oil degrades much more slowly and remains a chemical and physical problem for years to decades. One thing to think about when you vote for representatives who favor drilling in colder waters.

 

[gozermantis]

wow just learned a lot. Glad i picked up a bunch. What species do you suspect to get hit the worst?

 

[Koshmar]

Alas, my ignorance shames me! Thank you for answering my question Dr. Caldwell.

 

[stepho]

wow just learned a lot. Glad i picked up a bunch. What species do you suspect to get hit the worst?

I'm not a expert on stomatopods or anything but my bet would be N. wennerae to the be hardest hit of the common to the aquarium trade species.

The oil is mostly going north and making land fall in the panhandle of Florida, Louisiana, etc. O havanensis as far as I know doesn't occur much farther north than the Keys, so I think (hope) they should be safe, at least for now.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Hard to predict. N. wennerae is certainly the species of gonodactyoid most in harms way although there are lots of squilloids in the northeastern Gulf. On the other hand, Odontodactylus are in the plankton much longer than Neogonodactylus and are also more "delicate". I personally think they are all in trouble.

In the late 1990's we published a paper on the use of stomatopods as bioindicators of polution. Some species are incredibly sensitive, others live in sewers. The Gulf is about to become one of the largest sewers everl

Roy

 

[young doz]

damn.... alot to take in
did you see any o. scyllarus on your trip?

 

[Koshmar]

that's terrible. I can't believe they couldn't have fixed that leak/explosion before it got out of hand. But there are species that live in sewers? That's almost as crazy as waterbears in space.

 

[Thurge]

They might have if they actually had a plan... Unfortunately it is looking like one plan was approved for a deep water well and everybody copied it for their wells instead of formulating a plan for the nuances of each well.

I don't think Dr. Roy was being litteral. In many areas the coastal waters are extremely polluted. Not to pick on the Chinese, but where the Olympic sailing races were held; the water was so bad that they had a massive blue-green algae bloom just before the Olympics that actually threatened to force the races be moved.