Dear Nancy,

the best key to identify teredinids is:

Turner RD: Identification of marine wood-boring molluscs. In Marine borers, fungi and fouling organisms of wood. Edited by Jones SK, Eltringham GEB. Paris: Organisaion for Economic Co-operation and Development; 1971: 18–63.

Also useful are the the plates in:

Turner RD: A survey and illustrated catalogue of the Teredinidae: The Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University: 1966.

If you need confirmation of your identification, you can take pictures and I will be happy to check them for you.

Kind regards,

Luisa

Dear Luisa:

Thank you for your response. I read over your 2012 paper, and your email is on there. I am going to send you an email to the yahoo add

ress. Let me know if there is another address you prefer. Thank you for the offer on pallet id...I will take you up on it!!! I have shells and pallets..and would eventually like to connect the two. I cut up the debris with saws and wedges, and then shake out the pallets and shells. Then I go through it under the scope.

I work with James Carlton on the Japanese debris, and I would like to be able to identify the species of shipworm in the debris.

Thank you for these references....can I download them or do I need to buy them?

Sincerely,

Nancy Treneman

[email protected]

Dear Nacy,

I agree with the information of Luisa.

On other hand, I visited the comparative zoology museum 3 months ago. I was checking the type specimens of Teredinidae Family because I write a paper about the current distribution of this species in the Carribean Sea and Venezuela. If you need future information, about this group of molluscs you can write.

Best regards

Marcel

[email protected]

Dear Nancy,

I don´t think you can download the books, I have never seen them in the internet but you can investigate. I was given the book of Turner 1966 when I started my PhD on Marine wood borers. I bought Turner 1971 from Amazon, it is an essential book to identify teredinids. Perhaps you have them in the library of the Institution you work? If not they may be able to borrow them from another Institution for you.

Best wishes,

Luísa

Hello everyone, I am a bit late to this conversation but I'm looking for a similar reference & advice.

I have the Turner references but has there been any updated work since those classic papers came out?

I also find it difficult to be confident in many ID's due to how degraded the pallets become (or were upon extraction). What secondary characters might you all recommend (valves, I realize, but are the tubes at all indicative?)?

Thank you advance. I've followed your work Dr. Borges (I study boring sphaeromatid isopods). And would certainly appreciate a copy of your paper Dr. Valesquez.

Nancy, you and I actually met many years ago at OIMB (Jim was/is a mentor of mine). I'd be happy to check out your samples (and bring the Turner Refs) the next time I'm at OIMB, if you're interested.

kind regards,

Tim Davidson

Hello Tim,

Unfortunately there is no update on the works of Turner and others. We are now using molecular markers to improve "taxonomic resolution" because the pallets per se sometimes are not enough to distinguish species (particularly cryptic species). However, the shells cannot be used for identification because of their intraspecific variation and interspecific similarity. The calcareous tubes are not used either for taxonomy. The siphons might be useful, but there isn´t enough information on them.

I can make the same offer that I made to Nancy. If you take photos of the pallets, I can try to give you a second opinion, if that helps.

Kind regards,

Luísa (please call me by my first name, much easier:-)

Thank you Luisa, I appreciate the offer. I may take you up on that in the future!

Tim

Dear Timothy,

Again I agree with commentary of Dr. Luisa. The taxonomic determination of the species of Teredinidae family is so problematic in the majority of species, because their have many morphology variations of the pallets, and it is the principal structure used for the identification.

Here I sent a copy of my paper this is the note with the report of external and internal fertilization in Bankia martensi. In few months I will publish in this web site the complete paper with the description embryonic and larval development obtained by the two way of fertilization.

Best regards,

Marcel

Tim: great to hear from you! You are in a prime location for shipworms. Thanks for the comments. I recently found a paper that used Janus green to highlight periosteum of Bankia. The author is Leonel, Moraes, and Lopes, 2006. I haven't had a chance to try it yet. One of my more recent Japanese Beams had living teredo in it, and the pallets of B. bipennata were very long (8 cm), soft, and flexible, creamy white, and the periosteium was clear; so the drying process really changes the appearance. Let me know when you are coming to OIMB next; it would be great to get together.

Since the JTMD beams have a small subset of species, about 6 or 7, I can recognize some of them by their tube lining and shells, but only because I am dealing with the same subset. The ends of the tubes; either ridged inside, ribbed inside, smooth or sticking out gives me a clue.

Best, Nancy