PHOLADIDAE, Lamarck, 1809

Mead, A., Carlton, J. T., Griffiths, C. L. & Rius, M., 2011, Introduced and cryptogenic marine and estuarine species of South Africa, Journal of Natural History 45 (39 - 40), pp. 2463-2524 : 2498

Family PHOLADIDAE

Martesia striata (Linnaeus, 1758) Cryptogenic

Smith (1910) may have been the first to collect and record this well-known and now cosmopolitan boring piddock from South Africa, from floating seeds of the poison tree Barringtonia asiatica (as Barringtonia speciosa in Smith 1910). It was collected in Tongaat, KwaZulu-Natal, on the east coast. Day (1969) recorded it from Durban Bay to Delagoa Bay, “found boring in old mangrove roots”. The role of floating seeds in distributing this species is obfuscated by its presence in ships’ hulls in all tropical and subtropical waters. Global genetic studies are now required to sort out possible origins and biogeographic tracks.