As Peggy indicates, Perna viridis was introduced to Florida about 10 years
ago.   See discussion at http://www.jaxshells.org/012508.htm .

We have documented it at all the Florida east coast inlets from Jacksonville
south to Port Canaveral.

Marlo
merritt island
---------------------------
Doug Stemke wrote:

An odd finding though were several Mussels; I'm pretty sure they are Perna
viridis, at first pretty large ones (5-7 cm)
with a dark green color on the valve.  When I first found a few pairs I
was inclined to believe that this was someone's lunch or possibly idea of
seeding shells as noted by others here at Conch-L.  However it was a
pretty good hike from the campsite and then I started to find several
small ones too, on the order of 1-2 cm, really too small to be the ones
I've seen generally for sale for food.  They were washing in with the worm
tubes.

    It all seems so unlikely because I would associate Mussels with heavy
wave action, not what one would expect on a mostly sandy beach in Florida.
But the finding of the immature ones really set me to think that however
unlikely that this might be, that it could be the result of colonization;
is it at all possible?  I picked up only a couple of the larger ones
(foolishly) but if anyone feels they would like an image I can generate
one for them.


Marlo
merritt island, fl
Visit my website: Let's Talk Seashells
<http://s14.invisionfree.com/Conchologist_Forum/index.php?s=561483d184897208
19ac86b139d3e075&act=site>

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