Invasion History
First Non-native North American Tidal Record:First Non-native West Coast Tidal Record:
First Non-native East/Gulf Coast Tidal Record:
General Invasion History:
Guildfordia yoka was described from Japan, but ranges south to the Philippines and northern Australia. It inhabits deep water, down to 270 m, on silt or clay bottoms (Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 2006-2012). This shell is highly prized by collectors for its beauty. One living specimen was collected in 1912 at the mouth of San Francisco Bay in 34 m of water (Packard 1918, cited by Carlton 1979), a puzzling record.
North American Invasion History:
Invasion History on the West Coast:
The only record of Guildfordia yoka in North America is a single living specimen in a dredge collection off the Golden Gate in 1912 (Packard 1918, cited by Carlton 1979). This snail is unlikely to be found in fouling, and its larvae would be unlikely (though possible) candidates for ballast water transport (Carlton 1979).
Description
Guildfordia yoka is a marine turban snail. It has a flattened, dextrally coiled, conical shell, with 7-8 whorls covered with pimple-like bumps, terminating in a low obtuse spire. The remarkable feature of this species is the presence of eight radiating, backward-curving spines, each about equal to the shell diameter. The underside of the shell is convex and the umbilicus is large, but shallow and open, and the aperture is a narrow oval. This shell reaches a diameter of 100 mm. The color of the shell is purplish red. Description from: Jousseaume 1899, Oliver 2004, and Web images.
Taxonomy
Taxonomic Tree
| Kingdom: | Animalia | |
| Phylum: | Mollusca | |
| Class: | Gastropoda | |
| Subclass: | Prosobranchia | |
| Order: | Archaeogastropoda | |
| Superfamily: | Trochacea | |
| Family: | Turbiniidae | |
| SubFamily: | Astraeinae | |
| Genus: | Guildfordia | |
| Species: | yoka |
Synonyms
Potentially Misidentified Species
(=Astralium triumphans)
Ecology
General:
Guildfordia yoka is a marine turban snail, characteristic of deep, soft-sediment habitats. We have been unable to find information on its biology or life history.
Habitats
| General Habitat | Unstructured Bottom | None |
| General Habitat | Rocky | None |
| Tidal Range | Subtidal | None |
| Vertical Habitat | Epibenthic | None |
Tolerances and Life History Parameters
| Maximum Width (mm) | 100 | Oliver 2004 |
| Broad Temperature Range | None | Warm temperate-Tropical |
| Broad Salinity Range | None | Euhaline, a deep-water species (Carlton 1979) |
General Impacts
Guildfordia yoka is known from only a single specimen in US waters and no impacts are known from its occurrence. The shell is valued by collectors worldwide.Occurrence Map
| OCC_ID | Author | Year | Date | Locality | Status | Latitude | Longitude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 719138 | Packard 1918; Sumner et al. 1914 | 1912 | 1912-11-04 | Just outside the Golden Gate | Non-native | 37.7900 | -122.5200 |
References
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 2002-2024a Malacology Collection Search. <missing URL>Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 2006-2014b OBIS Indo-Pacific Molluscan Database. <missing URL>
Carlton, James T. (1979) History, biogeography, and ecology of the introduced marine and estuarine invertebrates of the Pacific Coast of North America., Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis. Pp. 1-904
Huang, Zongguo (Ed.), Junda Lin (Translator) (2001) Marine Species and Their Distributions in China's Seas, Krieger, Malabar, FL. Pp. <missing location>
Jousseaume, D. (1899) [Description of a new shell- Guildfordia yoka, Le Naturaliste 21: 48-49
Oliver, A. P. H. (2004) <missing title>, Firefly Books, Buffalo NY. Pp. <missing location>