Drainagewide Occurrenceof the Freshwater Jellyfish,

Craspedacusta sowerbyi Lankester 1880,in the Tennessee River System

~BRUCE L. YEAGER

Office of N, al Resources and Economic Development.Division Services and Field Operations.

Field Operations. Eastern Area.Tennessee Valley Authority.

Norris. Tennessee 37828

ABSTRACT.- Historical records and 42 new collections at 13 sitesalong 673 miles of the Tennessee River system are reviewed and pre-sented for the freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbyi. The exten-sive distribution pattern of C. sowerb.vi in the Tennessee River systemrepresents one of the few examples in North America of watershedcolonization, rather than isolated occurrence of this organism.

Although some researchers (Hargitt 1919, Schmitt 1939, Lytle1960) have discussed the general distribution of the freshwater jellyfish,Craspedacusta sowerbyi Lankester 1880, in North America, almost allreports are of single, isolated occurrences with no watershed or drain-agewide observations. Nine records of the freshwater jellyfish in thestate of Tennessee have been published. Powers (1938) documented thespecies' presence in east Tennessee from a bloom on Andrew JacksonLake, a small private lake in Knox County. Isom and Sinclair (1962)published five records from Center Hill and Old Hickory reservoirs onthe Cumberland River. One collection of medusae (Chadwick andHouston 1953) was recorded from the most downstream portion of theTennessee River on Kentucky Reservoir. Pennington and Fletcher(1980) collected C. sowerbyi in the Tennessee River system, from Ken-tucky Reservoir in Tennessee and Guntersville Reservoir in Alabama.Summarizing the relatively few records of freshwater medusae from thesoutheastern United States, Lytle (1962) reported an observation fromWilson Reservoir. another mainstream impoundment of the TennesseeRiver in Alabama. The present report summarizes historical and newrecords in the Tennessee River system and firmly establishes the drain-agewide presence of the medusoid stage of Craspedacusta sowerbyi.

BrimJeyana ~o. 13:91-98. July 1987 91

92 Bruce L. Yeager

METHODSExcept for two collections from tributary reservoirs and one from

Wilson Reservoir, medusae were taken in a O.S-m-square beam nettowed obliquely through vertically integrated stl)llta at approximately1.0 m/ s for 10 minutes (Graser 1977, Tuberville 1979). The method wasused as a standard ichthyoplankton sampling pr6cedure throughout theTennessee River Valley.

Samples were preserved in 10% formalin. In the laboratory, speci-mens of C. sowerbyi were sorted from the ichthyoplankton samples andtransferred to 5% formalin buffered to ph 7.0. Specimens were donatedto the Department of Zoology at the University of Tennessee.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Incidental collections of medusae of freshwater jellyfish in ichthyo-plankton samples taken between 1978 and 1985 in the vicinity of Ten-nessee Valley Authority power projects yielded numerous additionalrecords in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, and expanded therange of collections in the Tennessee River system (Table 1). Collectionlocalities for medusae reflect efforts directed to specific sampling sitesand do not necessarily define habitat for C. sowerbyi within the Tennes-see River system.

Craspedacusla sowerbyi was present in seven mainstream impound-ments of the Tennessee River and in at least two tributary impound-ments, Norris and Douglas reservoirs. Historical records (Table 2) andthose reported here (Fig. I) extend over 394 miles of the TennesseeRiver, between river miles 136 and 530, and include all mainstreamimpoundments except Fort Loudon Reservoir, which has not beensampled with the types of gear likely to capture medusae. Collectionsfrom tributary rivers (exclusive of the Cumberland River localities)extend the records to include 673 ,river miles from the most downstreamsite on the Tennessee River to the most upstream sites on the FrenchBroad and Clinch rivers.

Craspedacusta sowerbyi is probably an exotic species introducedfrom the Orient (Kramp 1950) where it occurs in a system of standingand running waters along 1500 miles of the Yangtze River basin inChina. First found in the United States in 1908, the medusae have beenreported here only sporadically. Hydroids are associated with lotic, orrunning water, habitats (Hutchinson 1967), whereas medusae are mostoften found in lentic or standing waters. particularly artificially con-structed impoundments (Lytle 1960). The system of alternating riverinehabitats and impoundments available in the Tennessee River system isconducive to the establishment or formation of both the hydroid andmedusoid stages.

Freshwater Jellyfish Occurrence 93

Evidence of this animal's successful spread throughout other drain-ages in North America is limited. The only watersheds in North Amer-ica where reports indicate a widespread distribution of the medusae arethe Kentucky River in Kentucky (Garman .1916, 1922, 1924; Payne1925, 1926) and in the Potomac and James rivers in Virginia, Maryland,and the District of Columbia (Lytle 1960). The distribution pattern ofC. sowerbyi in the Tennessee River system resembles the pattern inthese North American rivers, as well as that of the Yangtze River inAsia, and represents one of the few examples in North America ofwatershed colonization, rather than isolated occurrence, of C. sowerbyi.

LITERATURE CITED

Chadwick, C. S., and H. Houston. 1953. A "bloom" of freshwater medusaeCraspedacustaryderi (Potts) in Kentucky Lake, Tennessee.J. Tenn. Acad.Sci. 28:36-37.

Garman, H. 1916. The sudden appearance of great numbers of freshwatermedusaein a Kentuckycreek. Science44(1146):858-860.

. 1922. Freshwatercoelenteratain Kentucky.Science56(1458):664.

. 1924. The freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacustasowerbyi) in Ken-tucky again. Science60:477-478.

Graser, L. F. 1977. Selectivityof larval fish gear and some new techniquesforentrainment and open water larval fish sampling. Page, 56-71in Proceed-ings of First Symposiumon Freshwater Larval Fish, 1977,L. L. Olmsted,editor. Duke Power Company, Huntersville,N.C.

Hargitt, C. W. 1919. Distribution of the freshwatermedusa, Craspedacusta,inthe United States. Science50:413-415.

Hutchinson, G. E. 1967. A treatise on limnology, introduction to lake biologyand the limnoplankton. Vol.2. John Wileyand Sons, Inc., New York.

150m,B. G., and R. M. Sinclair. 1962. Freshwatercoelenteratesin Tennessee,New distribution records for: I. Craspedacustasowerbyi Lankester 1880.II.Cordylophora lacustris Allman 1871.Pub!. No.9 Tenn. Stream PollutionControl Board.

Kramp, P. L. 1950. Freshwater medusaein China. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 120(Part I):165-184.

Lytle, C. F. 1960. A note on the distribution patterns in Crapedacusta.Trans.Am. Microsc.Soc. 79:461-469.

. 1962. Craspedacusta in the southeastern United States. TulaneStud. Zool. 95:309-314.

Payne, F. 1925. The hydroid of Craspedacustaryderi in Kentucky. Science62(1610):421.

. 1926. F~rther studies on the life history of Craspedacusta ryderi, afreshwater hydromedusan. BioI. Bull. 50(6):433-443.

Pennington, W. L., and 1. W. Fletcher. 1980. Two additional records of Cras-pedacusta sowerbyi Lankester in the Tennessee river system. J. Tenn. Acad.Sci. 55:31-34.

Table I. Collections of the freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusla sowerbyi, from the Tennessee River system between 1973 and 1985.

Collection Number \0Site-State Reservoir River miles a Year period collected

Ycllow Creek, Pickwick YCM 0.5 - 5.4 1979 II, 12, 13 July 24Mississippi YCM 0.5 - 6.2 25 July 43

YCM 5.4 1980 I July 1YCM 2.0 - 6.2 16 July 18

Town Creek, b Wilson TRM 272 1985 29 July 7Alabama

Drowns Ferry, Wheeler TR M 294 1980 23 June IAlabama 21 July I Ct:I

4 August I ..,c:

II August 7 (")

18, 19 August 4 r'25 August 4

--<:

TRM 294 1981 30June 4 OQ

22July I ..,28 July I

Murphy Hill, Guntersville TRM 370.0 - 370.8 1982 30 June 2Alabama

Bellefonte, Guntersville TRM 392.2 1979 4 AugustAlabama

Raccoon Mountain, Nickajack TRM 445.4 1978 8 AugustTennessee 23 August

TRM 445.4 1980 17 July

Sequoyah, . Chickamauga TRM 479.4 1979 21 JuneTennessee

Douglas (tributaryFrench BroadRiver)

a -YCM =Yellow Creek Mile; TRM =Tennessee River Mile; CRM =Clinch River Mile; FBRM =French Broad River Mile.b - Specimens collected in embayment at.mouth of creek by the author. Reported as numerous by private individual two weeks earlier.c - Live specimen from Norris Reservoir was collected by a private individual and brought to the Eastern Area Fisheries Laboratory, Tennessee

Valley Authority, Norris, Tennessee.d - Observation was incidental to a cove rotenone sample taken by TVA fisheries personnel.

TRM 479.4- 482.7TRM 482.7TRM 479.4 - 484.8TRM 479.4 1980

TRM 484.8

Calico,Tennessee

Chickamauga TRM 521.8 1978

Lowe Branch,Tennessee

Watts Bar TRM 530.0 - 530.4 1978

Hickory Star Dock, cTennessee

Norris (tributaryClinch River)

CRM 104.4 1978

Swans Bridge, dTennessee

FBRM 53.4 1973 21June Numerous

\0V\

Smith Bend, Chickamauga TRM 525.1 1978Tennessee

Watts Bar Nuclear, Chickamauga TRM 528.0 1978Tennessee

5 July " 2IBJuly I15August 63 July I30July 4II August I

10, 11July 224, 25July 217 August 821,22 August 4

I, 2 August 14 ."IS, 16August 3 ;:

(II:r

18July 2 1\1-nI August 22 ..,15 August 3 1..0

!!.29 August 5 -<

::tVI

17, 18July 201:r031July, I August 40 n

14, 15 August 10 nc:28 August 12 ..,..,n::In2 August

n

96 Bruce l. Yeager

Table 2. Historical collections of freshwater jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbyi,from the Tennessee-Cumberland River system.

Citation Collection Date Localities

Powers 1938 15July 1938 Andrew Jackson Lake(small private lake),Tennessee

Chadwickand Houston 1953 24July 1952

Isom and Sinclair 1962 18 Aug. 1960

5 Sept. 1960

14 Oct. 1962

16 Oct. 1960

17 Oct. 1960

Lytle 1962 1,4 July 1958

Pennington and Aetcher 1980 26 June 1978

29 June 1978

aTRM =Tennessee River Mile

Kentucky Reservoir, Bur-tons Creek

Belowspillway,Old Hick-ory Lake, CumberlandRiver

Old Hickory Lake, SpencerCreek, Cumberland River

Center Hill Reservoir,neardam

Center Hill Reservoir,2.5milesabove dam, CaneyFork River

Center Hill Reservoir,Caney Fork River

Wilson Reservoir, Tennes-see River

Kentucky ReservoirTRMa 120

Guntersville ReservoirTRM 389

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C PREVIOUS RECORDS. PRESENT RECORDS

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Fig. I. Historical and present (1973-1985) collection localities for Craspedacusta sowerby;in the Tennessee and Cumberland River systems.

98 Bruce L. Yeager

Powers,E. B. 1938. FreshwatermedusaeinTennessee.Science88:498-499.Schmitt, W. L. 1939. Freshwater jellyfISh records since 1932. Am. Nat.

73:83-89.Tuberville,J. D. 1979. Verticaldistribution of ichthyoplankton in upper Nick-

ajack Reservoir, Tennesscc,with a comparison of three sampling method-ologies.Pages 185-203in Proceedingsof Third Symposiumon Larval Fish,1979,R. D. Hoyt, editor. WesternK.entuckyUniv., BowlingGreen.

Accepted 29 May 1986