Detection and identification of the large, exotic, crassostreine oyster Magallana bilineata (Röding, 1798) in northern Queensland, Australia

ABSTRACT

Between September 2019 and February 2020, four separate discoveries of populations of a large rock oyster in the wild (albeit in anthropogenically modified habitats) in northern Queensland prompted a molecular and morphological investigation to determine the identity of the species. Sequencing of partial mitochondrial 16S, mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I, and histone H3 genes of specimens from four sites spanning some 170 km demonstrates that their sequences match those for Magallana bilineata (Röding, 1798), a species not previously recorded from Australia. Given its large size and onshore habitat, it is most likely that M. bilineata is exotic to Australia and has been introduced recently; however its origin is difficult to ascertain because it is widespread (both naturally and through translocation for aquaculture) in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean. Given that, as with any non-native invading marine species, M. bilineata is deemed to be ‘Prohibited Matter’ under the Queensland Biosecurity Act 2014, it is being monitored by Biosecurity Queensland to determine if the establishment is permanent and if intervention by biosecurity agencies is feasible or would be effective.

KEYWORDS:

• Ostreidae
• Crassostreinae
• Magallana
• Crassostrea
• genetic sequencing
• morphology
• invasive species
• taxonomy
• biosecurity

Acknowledgements

Daniel McInnes (NFC) forwarded Damien Langley’s photograph of a specimen from Port Douglas to AR that started the biosecurity process and he also spoke with RCW several times about it. Evan Rees (NAQS) collected the specimens from Cooktown and arranged for that lot of samples, as well as the previous lot from Port Douglas, to be delivered rapidly by Brett Devitt, a NAQS staffer, to RCW in Darwin. Nick Wade and Brendan McDougall assisted CM with specimen collection at Trinity Beach and Cairns. John Healy and Darryl Potter helped us examine the oyster specimens in the QM for comparison with Magallana bilineata, as did Mandy Reid and Ian Loch at the AMS Gijs Kronenberg and Guido Poppe gave RCW much helpful information on the whereabouts of historical material. Gijs Kronenberg and Daniele Salvi helped greatly with bibliographic material. Hamish Spencer offered insightful comments on a draft of this paper, as did the editor and two referees. The images comprising Figure 2 were taken by MAGNT’s former Digital Imaging Officer, Merinda Campbell. On behalf of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Andrew Clark gave approval to reproduce material that was previously disseminated for public information (i.e. Supplementary Figures 3 and 4). This paper is dedicated to the memory of those people who died from the virus COVID-19 in 2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research on the genetics of oysters was financially supported by an Advance Queensland Fellowship [grant number AQRF10916-17RD2] to CM from the Queensland Government Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation. Additional funds to CM came from the Australian Federal Government through the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation funded project titled ‘2018-118 Reinvigorating the Queensland Oyster Industry’. Additional funding to CM came from Griffith University and Biosecurity Queensland.