Agarophyton vermiculophyllum (Ohmi) Gurgel, J.N.Norris et Fredericq, 2018

Gurgel, Carlos Frederico D., Norris, James N., Schmidt, William E., Le, Hau Nhu & Fredericq, Suzanne, 2018, Systematics of the Gracilariales (Rhodophyta) including new subfamilies, tribes, subgenera, and two new genera, Agarophyton gen. nov. and Crassa gen. nov., Phytotaxa 374 (1), pp. 1-23 : 9

Agarophyton vermiculophyllum (Ohmi) Gurgel, J.N.Norris et Fredericq comb. nov.

BASIONYM: Gracilariopsis vermiculophylla Ohmi 1956: 271 , figs. 1–4, pls. 1–2. HOLOTYPE: HAK, Ohmi-200.

SYNONYM: Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Ohmi) Papenfuss (1967: 101) .

TYPE LOCALITY: Gomejima, Akkeshi-ko (shallow estruary adjoins Akkeshi Bay), Hokkaido Is., Japan.

REMARKS: Gracilaria vermiculophylla is a highly invasive species. Within the last 20 years, G. vermiculophylla has been introduced in the Eastern Pacific and Eastern and Western North Atlantic on numerous occasions by the shipping and import of Japanese oysters to North America and Europe ( Bellorin et al. 2004; Rueness 2005; Thomsen et al. 2006; Freshwater et al. 2006; Saunders 2009; Kim et al. 2010; Piñón-Gimate et al. 2012), or possibly as a component of seaweed/seagrass mixture used as commercial soil conditioner ( Abreu et al. 2011). The success of G. vermiculophylla as an invasive species and known habitat modifier have raised ecological and environmental concerns ( Wallentinus & Nyberg 2007; Williams & Smith 2007).