Comments on the so-called alien phoronid species in Europe

published in Handbook of alien species in Europe (2009)
Invading nature - Springer series in invasion ecology,
Volume 3, Chapter 11 [1].

 

The contribution on the Phoronida [2] (p. 221 ) needs some short comments about the published list as following:


Phoronida
Phoronidae
A Phoronis hippocrepia Wright, 1856
C Phoronis psammophila Cori, 1889
A Phoronopsis harmeri Pixell, 1912

A = Alien taxon from outside Europe; C = Cryptogenic species [3]

Phoronidae: not valid - see comments.

Phoronis hippocrepia is the first phoronid species described with the genus Phoronis by Wright (1856) from... Illfracombe (UK) - type locality. This species has a large distribution. More...

Phoronis psammophila has been described by Cori (1889) from... Messina (Italy) - type locality. The distribution is cosmopolitan. More...

Phoronopsis harmeri described by Pixell (1912) has its type locality in... Departure Bay (Vancouver Island, Canada) and a rather cosmopolitan distribution. More...

Fortunatly, the anonymous authors [1] missed the other phoronid species occurring in European waters. Maybe they did not know that other species occur and that really is a lesser evil. For over a century, no phoronid species can be considered as alien or invasive in Europe (and other part of the World Ocean) and throughout the information on is available and published. Such errors cast doubt on the scientific validity of the whole publication, and of the database DAISIE (Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventories for Europe) without distributional maps.

   

   

[ Click on the distributional maps to enlarge - © Christian C. Emig]

[1] No authors indicated (perhaps better!)  
[2] Results from the database DAISIE        
[3] = a species whose origins are unknown