Introduced Terrestrial Amphipods 
109 
(southern magnolia). Faunal groups other than amphipods found in this 
plant debris were the same as those listed above for T. alluaudi. I collec- 
ted specimens of T. topitotum at this site from August, 1974, to June, 
1977, at which time a large population was present. 
A second population of T. topitotum was found in March, 1980, liv- 
ing in a relatively undisturbed forest located across from Harborview 
Shopping Center, approximately 3.5 km from the population described 
above. The approximately 20 ha mesic forest, which surrounds a lake, 
has a canopy (and leaf litter) consisting primarily of Quercus falcata 
(southern red oak), Pinus taeda (loblolly pine), and Quercus laurifolia 
(laurel oak). Talitroides topitotum is found in small numbers ( < l-50m- 2 ) 
in the thick humus layer in various parts of the forest. Fligher densities 
(90-140 nv 2 ) are present within 10 m of the edge of a small swamp adja- 
cent to the lake. Where the soil is saturated with water, however, T. 
topitotum is absent. Pleopods of Charleston specimens of T. topitotum 
conform to Burt’s (1934) description. Published body lengths of 5-13 mm 
(Shoemaker 1936) are not very different from the maximum recorded 
length in Charleston specimens of 10 mm. 
Voucher specimens of both Talitroides species have been deposited 
in the collections of the Canadian National Museum of Natural Sciences, 
Ottawa; the Grice Marine Biological Laboratory, Charleston; the North 
Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh (10 T. topitotum, 
NCSM C-323; 10 T. alluaudi, NCSM C-324); and my personal collection. 
DISCUSSION 
Both T. alluaudi and T. topitotum are of Indo-Pacific origin and un- 
doubtedly were transported to Charleston with exotic species of plants 
common in this coastal, subtropical city. They are two of only three 
species of terrestrial amphipods recorded from the continental United 
States, the third being Arcitalitrus sylvaticus (Haswell), found in Califor- 
nia (Bousfield and Carlton 1967). 
Talitroides alluaudi was first described by Chevreux (1901) from the 
Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean, where it lives in rotten trunks of 
coconut trees and forest humus (Shoemaker 1936). Figures of this species 
are in Chevreux (1901) and Reid (1947). Talitroides alluaudi, discovered 
in an Ohio greenhouse (Visscher and Heimlich 1930), was the first fully 
terrestrial amphipod found in the continental United States. Wild pop- 
ulations have been found on various Indian Ocean and Polynesian 
islands, the Canary Islands, the Azores (Hurley 1975), Hawaii (Bousfield 
and Howarth 1976), California (Bousfield 1975), Florida and Georgia 
(Bousfield unpublished). Greenhouse populations have been found in 
Ohio (Visscher and Heimlich 1930), New Jersey (Shoemaker 1936), 
Illinois, Ontario (Medcof 1939), and at least eleven European countries 
(Hurley 1959). 
Talitroides topitotum was first described by Burt (1934) from 
