Epibiosis by Florida Crown Conch (Melongena corona) on Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in a Northern Florida Estuary

Harrison L. Hobbs^1,*, Catherine B. Eastman², Scott F. Eastman³, Edward McGinley¹, and David L. Kimbro⁴

¹Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL 32080. ²University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, Sea Turtle Hospital, St. Augustine, FL 32080. ³Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection, St. Augustine, FL 32080. ⁴Northeastern University College of Science, Boston, MA 02115. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 23, Issue 4 (2024): N58–N62

First published early online: 4 December 2024

Abstract
We report the first observations of Melongena corona (Florida Crown Conch) as an epibiont attached to the carapace of juvenile Chelonia mydas (Green Sea Turtle). The Florida Crown Conch is a carnivorous marine gastropod found in benthic intertidal communities along the coast of Florida, southeastern Alabama, and parts of the Caribbean. Florida Crown Conchs have also been associated with declines in the oyster reefs in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), where both our observations were reported. Northeast Florida’s Crown Conch population is described as expanding northward in the estuary since 2010. As such, we propose that Green Turtles may be facilitating the northern expansion of the Florida Crown Conch, which would be an important dynamic to account for when designing and implementing conservation, restoration, and aquaculture programs for shellfish areas north of the GTMNERR.

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