Alien invaders: Haminoea japonica in North America and Europe

摘要

Haminoea japonica Pilsbry, 1895, is a small yellow brown opisthobranch (sea slug), also known as the Japanese paper bubble snail, that was first described based on shell morphology by Pilsbry in 1895 as a variety of H. binotata (Pilsbry, 1895). In 1952, a more reliable description based on radular morphology was published by Habe. Starting in the 1980s, the species has been reported from South Korea, Washington State, Northern California, British Columbia in Canada, Italy, Spain, and France. H. japonica appears to have a negative impact on the native Haminoea species in the US (Haminoea vesicula (Gould, 1855)), and populations have decreased significantly in areas where H. japonica has flourished. H. japonica also has been found to carry a non-native parasite that has caused swimmer's itch in humans exposed to seawater in San Francisco Bay.