Exposure of Creosote-Naive and Creosote-Conditioned Limnoria tripunctata (Menzies) of Untreated and Creosote-Treated Wood.

摘要

Creosoted timbers are often destroyed in a few years by the marine crustacean wood borer, Limnoria tripunctata. Previous investigators have speculated that the ability of this animal to survive in creosote is afforded by hydrocarbon-metabolizing bacteria present on the wood surface, in the borer tunnels, or in the digestive tracts of the animals. This report evaluates the behavioral responses of two separate populations of L. tripunctata to creosoted wood. The health of the organisms was judged by measuring the production of fecal pellets and by percent survival. A creosote-naive (never exposed to creosote) population of L. tripunctata exhibited 95% survival and produced numerous fecal pellets when exposed to untreated wood. Its survival on wood from an aged creosoted dolphin (dolphin wood) was slightly less, but numerous fecal pellets were produced by Day 2, indicating that this population began boring immediately. This rapid adaptation to the dolphin wood could be attributed to a decrease in the effectiveness of the residual creosote left in the surface layer of the wood. When this wood was sterilized, survival dropped to 80% and fecal pellet production fell below normal; when it was first scraped to expose a new surface, survival declined to 17% on unsterilized wood and 3% on sterilized wood. Fecal pellets were also scarce, indicating the undesirability of this wood to these laboratory-reared animals.