Check, Please!

Interesting article in the Statesman Journal about the "educational sweeps" for non-native species currently underway by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The ODFW's Invasive Species Coordinator makes routine visits to pet shops across Oregon to make sure they're not selling prohibited species. If the coordinator finds something on the list (and he sometimes does), the store is asked to remove that plant or animal from sale. It sounds like the inspections have the added bonus of providing the ODFW with valuable information about which prohibited species are still in demand from the public.

The article includes examples of species that the state is concerned about and contact information for Oregon's Invasive Species Coordinator. Kudos to the Statesman Journal for yet another great piece in their series on invasive species. If you really want to dig deeper on this topic, you can read the Oregon legislation on the import, possession, transport and sale of non-native species, including the full species lists, for wildlife and for plants.

How Do I Loathe Thee?

In case you missed Friday's post, there is probably still time for you to get your two cents in to NPR about what you think are "The 5 most loathed invasive species in the world."

Fear And Self-Loathing On NPR

Want a chance to be heard on NPR? Science reporter John Nielsen is prepping a story for next week's news on the "five most loathed invasive species in the world." There are only two rules to follow here: 1) Be specific and 2) No diseases. I'd like to add a 3) No fair saying "humans" - we're too easy a target.

What would you put on the list? If you want to give John a piece of your mind, drop him a line at 202-513-2781 or email him at jnielsen AT npr DOT org. He's especially hoping to hear from scientists, but everyone is welcome to participate. If you're too shy to share with public radio, let's get a discussion started in the comments!

Here is my list, which was awfully hard to make, because I love all invasive species equally ;-). In no particular order:

• Didymo (Didymosphenia geminata) - The spread of this freshwater aquatic algae is near impossible to detect or control. It's all over New Zealand and was recently discovered in the Northeastern USA. I cannot think of an invader that would make resource managers feel more helpless or frustrated, and anglers are certainly peeved as well.
• Northern snakehead (Channa argus) - Hated widely because it is so charismatic, rather than for its impact. They've made two movies about this fish already!
• Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) - No one likes biting insects, especially ones that travel in packs.
• Mute swan (Cygnus olor) - Only because the amount that this species is hated by the people charged with managing them and people concerned with their environmental impact is directly proportional to the amount that this species is loved by animal rights activists and those captivated by their aesthetic qualities.
• The abominable feral kudzu hydrilla pig-carp. Okay, so this last one is a cop-out :-).

Bermuda Short

The Royal Gazette is reporting that the island of Bermuda is considering instituting a banned species list to prevent further introductions of invasive plants and animals. The details can be found in the draft of the Sustainable Development Strategy and Implementation Plan, which you can read in its entirety here (.pdf)...or just skip to Option 3.5.A.3 :-).

100 103 100 Worst Oregonian Invaders

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is reporting that the state has recently updated their list of 100 worst invaders. Three new species have been added to the list: rock snot (Didymosphenia geminata, misspelled as Didymosphenia geminate in the article), Amur goby (Rhinogobius brunneus) and granulate ambrosia beetle (Xylosandrus crassiusculus).

Perhaps more interesting is what got bumped off. The press release states that "Getting off the list is more difficult than getting on." but since they're keeping it fixed at 100 species, I'm not sure how that is true. Removed from the list are: Japanese oyster drill (Ceratostoma inornatum), noted as a "minor pest that can be controlled," and blueberry maggot (Rhagoletis mendax) and glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata), two species that were deemed to not be a problem in natural habitats. You can view the entire list of 100 baddies here, but unfortunately it has not yet been updated. Hopefully when it is, Oregon will let their website visitors keep track of the species that got removed.

Negative bonus points to every organization that puts out a press release before they've actually put out the product the press release is about.

Made in Japan

Last month Japan came out with the country's first official list of invasive species. Problem (for me anyway) was that although there were some English-language articles about the list, there were no sources that actually included the list itself. Thanks to the magic of email and the ugliness of HTML-rendered Excel, I now bring you the official list of invasive species in Japan:

Mammalia:	Mammals:
Macaca cyclopis	Formosan rock macaque
Macaca fascicularis	long-tailed macaque
Macaca mulatta	rhesus monkey
Procyon lotor	Northern raccoon
Procyon cancrivorus	crab-eating raccoon
Herpestes javanicus	Indian mongoose
Callosciurus erythraeus	Pallas squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis	Eastern grey squirrel
Myocastor coypus	nutria
Trichosurus vulpecula	brushtail possum
Muntiacus reevesi	Muntjac deer
Aves:	Birds:
Garrulax canorus	hwamei
Garrulax perspicillatus	masked laughingthrush
Garrulax sannio	white-browed laughingthrush
Leiothrix lutea	red-billed leiothrix
Reptilia:	Reptiles:
Chelydra serpentina	snapping turtle
Anolis carolinensis	green anole
Anolis sagrei	brown anole
Boiga irregularis	brown tree snake
Elaphe taeniura friesi	Taiwan beauty snake
Protobothrops mucrosquamatus	Taiwan habu snake
Amphibia:	Amphibians:
Bufo marinus	cane toad
Pisces:	Fish:
Micropterus dolomieu	smallmouth bass
Lepomis macrochirus	bluegill
Ictalurus punctatus	channel catfish
Insecta:	Insects:
Solenopsis invicta	red imported fire ant
Solenopsis geminata	fire ant
Linepithema humile	Argentine ant
Invertebrata:	Arachnids:
Latrodectus hasseltii	redback spider
Latrodectus geometricus	brown widow spider
Latrodectus tredecimguttatus	black widow spider
Latrodectus mactans	black widow spider
Loxosceles - 2 species	recluse/violin spiders
Dipluridae - 2 genera	giant spiders
Buthidae - all species	scorpions
Tracheophyta:	Aquatic plants:
Alternanthera philoxeroides	alligator weed
Hydrocotyle ranunculoides	floating pennywort
Gymnocoronis spilanthoides	Senegal tea

(Thanks to T. Yoshioka for being so kind as to provide me with the list of scientific names.)