A biography of an invasive terrestrial slug: the spread, distribution and habitat of Derocerasinvadens
2014
Hutchinson, John M.C. | Reise, Heike | Robinson, David G.
The article reviews distribution records of Derocerasinvadens (previously called Deroceraspanormitanum and Derocerascaruanae), adding significant unpublished records from the authors’ own collecting, museum samples, and interceptions on goods arriving in the U.S.A. By 1940 Derocerasinvadens had already arrived in Britain, Denmark, California, Australia and probably New Zealand; it has turned up in many further places since, including remote oceanic islands, but scarcely around the eastern Mediterranean (Egypt and Crete are the exceptions), nor in Asia. Throughout much of the Americas its presence seems to have been previously overlooked, probably often being mistaken for Deroceraslaeve. New national records include Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, with evidence from interceptions of its presence in Panama, Peru, and Kenya. The range appears limited by cold winters and dry summers; this would explain why its intrusion into eastern Europe and southern Spain has been rather slow and incomplete. At a finer geographic scale, the occurrence of the congener Derocerasreticulatum provides a convenient comparison to control for sampling effort; Derocerasinvadens is often about half as frequently encountered and sometimes predominates. Derocerasinvadens is most commonly found in synanthropic habitats, particularly gardens and under rubbish, but also in greenhouses, and sometimes arable land and pasture. It may spread into natural habitats, as in Britain, South Africa, Australia and Tenerife. Many identifications have been checked in the light of recent taxonomic revision, revealing that the sibling species Deroceraspanormitanum s.s. has spread much less extensively. A number of published or online records, especially in Australia, have turned out to be misidentifications of Deroceraslaeve.
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