Lithoredo

Last updated

Lithoredo
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Subclass: Heterodonta
Order: Myida
Family: Teredinidae
Genus: Lithoredo
Shipway, Distel & Rosenberg, 2019
Species:
L. abatanica
Binomial name
Lithoredo abatanica
Shipway, Distel & Rosenberg, 2019

Lithoredo is a genus of shipworm native to the Abatan River in the Philippines. It contains a single species, Lithoredo abatanica, described in June 2019. [1] The species is unusual because, unlike other shipworms which mainly bore into wood, it tunnels into and excretes limestone. It lacks the cecum which in other shipworms holds symbiotic bacteria which digest wood. Compared to other shipworms, lithoredo have differently shaped teeth which can finely grind stone. The worms use the tunnels to live in but their method of eating is not yet known. They may get nutrition from bacteria in their gills. [2]

Related Research Articles

Sipuncula Phylum of invertebrates, peanut worms

The Sipuncula or Sipunculida is a group containing about 162 species of bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented marine worms. The name Sipuncula is from the genus name Sipunculus, and comes from the Latin siphunculus meaning a "small tube". Sipuncula seems to be closely related to Myzostomida, and Annelida.

Shipworm Family of molluscs

The shipworms are marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae: a group of saltwater clams with long, soft, naked bodies. They are notorious for boring into wood that is immersed in sea water, including such structures as wooden piers, docks and ships; they drill passages by means of a pair of very small shells borne at one end, with which they rasp their way through. Sometimes called "termites of the sea", they also are known as "Teredo worms" or simply Teredo, from the Greek τερηδώνteredōn, via Latin. Eventually biologists adopted the common name Teredo as the name for the best-known genus.

<i>Alvinella pompejana</i> Species of annelid worm

Alvinella pompejana, the Pompeii worm, is a species of deep-sea polychaete worm. It is an extremophile found only at hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, discovered in the early 1980s off the Galápagos Islands by French marine biologists.

Woodworm Wood-eating beetle larva

A woodworm is the wood-eating larva of many species of beetle. It is also a generic description given to the infestation of a wooden item by these larvae.

<i>Osedax</i> Genus of annelid worms

Osedax is a genus of deep-sea siboglinid polychaetes, commonly called boneworms, zombie worms, or bone-eating worms. Osedax is Latin for "bone-eater". The name alludes to how the worms bore into the bones of whale carcasses to reach enclosed lipids, on which they rely for sustenance. They utilize specialized root tissues for bone-boring. It is possible that multiple species of Osedax reside in the same bone. Osedax worms are also known to feed on the collagen itself by making holes in the whale's skeletal structure. These holes can also serve as a form of protection from nearby predators.

Teredo may refer to:

In computer networking, Teredo is a transition technology that gives full IPv6 connectivity for IPv6-capable hosts that are on the IPv4 Internet but have no native connection to an IPv6 network. Unlike similar protocols such as 6to4, it can perform its function even from behind network address translation (NAT) devices such as home routers.

Frass Waste from insects

Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter.

Ruth Turner American marine biologist

Ruth Dixon Turner was a pioneering U.S. marine biologist and malacologist. She was the world's expert on Teredinidae or shipworms, a taxonomic family of wood-boring bivalve mollusks which severely damage wooden marine installations.

Gribble Family of crustaceans

A gribble /ˈgɹɪbəl/ is any of about 56 species of marine isopod from the family Limnoriidae. They are mostly pale white and small crustaceans, although Limnoria stephenseni from subantarctic waters can reach 10 mm (0.4 in).

<i>Teredo navalis</i> Species of bivalve

Teredo navalis, commonly called the naval shipworm or turu, is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Teredinidae. This species is the type species of the genus Teredo. Like other species in this family, this bivalve is called a shipworm, because it resembles a worm in general appearance, while at the anterior end it has a small shell with two valves which is adept at boring through wood.

Xylophagy Digestion of wood

Xylophagy is a term used in ecology to describe the habits of an herbivorous animal whose diet consists primarily of wood. The word derives from Greek ξυλοφάγος (xulophagos) "eating wood", from ξύλον "wood" and φαγεῖν "to eat", an ancient Greek name for a kind of a worm-eating bird. Animals feeding only on dead wood are called sapro-xylophagous or saproxylic.

<i>Lyrodus</i> Genus of bivalves

Lyrodus is a genus of ship-worms, marine bivalve molluscs of the family Teredinidae.

Kuphus is a genus of shipworms, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae. While there are four extinct species in the genus, the only extant species is Kuphus polythalamius. It is the longest bivalve mollusc in the world, where the only known permanent natural habitat is Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat in the Philippines.

<i>Teredo</i> (bivalve) Genus of molluscs

Teredo is a genus of highly modified saltwater clams which bore in wood and live within the tunnels they create. They are commonly known as "shipworms," and are marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Teredinidae. The type species is Teredo navalis.

Teredora princesae is a species of marine bivalve mollusc in the family Teredinidae, the shipworms. This species lives in timber that is floating in the western Pacific Ocean.

<i>Limnoria lignorum</i> Species of crustacean

Limnoria lignorum, commonly known as the gribble, is a species of isopod in the family Limnoriidae. It is found in shallow water in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean where it tunnels into wood and attacks and destroys submerged wooden structures.

Timber pilings

Piling foundations support many historic structures such as canneries, wharves, and shore buildings. The old pilings present challenging problems during restoration as they age and are destroyed by organisms and decay. Replacing the foundation entirely is possible but expensive. Regularly inspecting and maintaining timber piles may extend the life of the foundation.

Thiosocius is a genus of bacteria that lives in symbiosis with the giant shipworm Kuphus polythalamius. It contains a single species, Thiosocius teredinicola, which was isolated from the gills of the shipworm. The specific name derives from the Latin terms teredo (shipworm) and incola (dweller).

Kuphus polythalamius is a species of shipworm, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Teredinidae.

References

  1. Shipway, J. Reuben; Altamia, Marvin A.; Rosenberg, Gary; Concepcion, Gisela P.; Haygood, Margo G.; Distel, Daniel L. (2019). "A rock-boring and rock-ingesting freshwater bivalve (shipworm) from the Philippines". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 286 (1905): 20190434. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0434 . PMC   6599978 . PMID   31213180.
  2. These Two Newly Described Worms Have Really Strange, Yet Marvelous Butts, Jason Daley, Smithsonian, June 21, 2019