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INTRODUCTION
A small piece of driftwood, approxiamately
40x10cm, with shipworm borings was found by
Harriet Wood on the strandline of Porth Neigwl
(Hell’s Mouth), Llyn, Wales. Although no living
shipworms were found a number of shells and
pallets was extracted. The pallets had strong
radial ridges making them instantly recognisable
as belonging to the genus Uperotus Guettard,
1770 (Turner, 1966, 1971). This genus has not been
recorded from British waters (Smith & Heppell,
1991) and is not included in the European and
Mediterranean checklist (CLEMAM, 2008). Here
we illustrate the shells and pallets, and discuss
their identity.
MATERIAL EXAMINED
1sh+2 associated pallets; 3x 1v+1 associated
pallet; 16 pallets; 20+ valves. In driftwood
(40x10cm worn log) Strandline, Porth Neigwl
(Hell’s Mouth), Llyn, Wales, UK; 52°48´13.97˝N
4°32´35.36˝W.
The shipworm Uperotus is represented in the
Atlantic by two nominal taxa, U. panamensis
(Bartsch, 1922) and U. lieberkindi (Roch, 1931),
and are considered to be possibly synonymous
by Turner (1966, 1971). Records of these are rare
with no references in the literature post Turner,
1966 in which she includes the type descriptions
and a reference to U. lieberkindi in Rancurel
(1955). Uperotus panamensis is therefore only
known from the Bay of Panama and U. lieber-
kindi from tropical West Africa.
Turner (1966) does not discuss her statement
that the two Atlantic nominal taxa are synony-
mous but distinguishes them by the few and
widely separated ridges on the anterior slope
of the shell of U. panamensis (see Turner, 1966:
plate 23E1) compared to the dense sculpture
in U. lieberkindi (see Turner, 1966: plate 23F1).
The Llyn shells (Fig.1C) are most like those
of U. liebenrocki both in sculpture and shape.
Although Turner (1966) does not discuss any
differences in the pallets, her illustrations show
pallets that are not identical. In U. lieberkindi
the radial ridges emanate from a central swol-
len area (Turner 1966: plate23F3-5) but this area
is not expressed in U. panamensis (Turner 1966:
plate 23E3-4). The pallets from the Llyn (Figs
FIRST BRITISH RECORD OF THE SHIPWORM UPEROTUS (BIVALVIA:
TEREDINIDAE) FROM DRIFTWOOD ON THE LLYN, WALES.
P. GRAHAM OLIVER1, HARRIET WOOD1 & ANNA M HOLMES1
Abstract The shipworm genus Uperotus is recorded for the first time from British shores. The name U. lieberkindi (Roch,
1931) is adopted rather than U. panamensis (Bartsch, 1922). The pallets and shell are illustrated.
Key words Uperotus lieberkindi, new record, British Isles
Contact author : graham.oliver@museumwales.ac.uk
JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY (2008), VOL.39, NO.6
Figure 1 Uperotus lieberkindi Roch, Llyn, Wales, UK. A
Outer face of pallete B inner face of palette C shell.
PG OLIVER, H WOOD, AM HOLMES
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1A-B) all display the structure of U. lieberkindi.
Despite Turner’s (1966) suggestion that there
is a single species of Uperotus in the Atlantic, our
observations link the Llyn specimens to the form
represented by U. lieberkindi and not that of U.
panamensis. It is suggested here that the name
Uperotus lieberkindi be adopted for the British
specimens.
It is doubtful that this species will be found
living in British waters as the genus is, as
yet, restriced to living in tropical seas. Many
specimens of the goose barnacle Lepas anserifera
Linnaeus, 1767 were attached to the log, all with
the stalk and tissues intact. This suggests that the
log was only recently stranded but despite this,
there were no traces of tissue associated with the
shells and pallets.
REFERENCES
BARTSCH P 1922 Monograph of the American ship-
worms. Bulletin of the United States National Museum.
122: 1-48, pls 1-37.
CLEMAM 2008 Checklist of European and
Mediterranean Marine Mollusca. http://www.
somali.asso.fr/clemam/index.clemam.html.
RANCUREL P 1955 Teredo thomsoni Tryon et Teredo lie-
berkindi Roch. Transformations morphologiquesdes
palettes au cour de la croissance. Bulletin d’Institut
Francaise de l’Afrique Noire. 12: 1149-1156.
ROCH F 1931 Die Terediniden der Skandinavischen
Museums-sammlungen (Stockholm, Gothenburg,
Kopenhagen, Oslo, Nidaros und Tromso). Arkiv für
Zoologi. 22A:1-29.
SMITH SM & HEPPELL D 1991 Checklist of British
Marine Mollusca. National Museums of Scotland
Information Series, No 11, Edinburgh; 114pp.
TURNER RD 1966 A Survey and Illustrated Catalogue
of the Teredinidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Museum of
Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.; 265pp.
TURNER RD 1971 Identification of marine wood-boring
mollusks, p. 17-64. In: Jones EBG & Eltringham SK
(eds), Marine borers, fungi and fouling organisms of
wood. Proceedings OECD workshop, 27th March-3rd
April 1968, Paris.
