Teredo

teredo: see shipworm.

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teredo

any marine bivalve mollusc of the genus Teredo

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Teredo 

or shipworm, a wood-boring marine bivalve mollusk of the family Teredinidae. They live in wood that has fallen into seawater; they frequently inhabit the submerged parts of wooden vessels (hence the name) and other hydrotechnical installations, burrowing passages in the structures and destroying them.

The shipworm’s body is wormlike; it bores with the small bivalve shell at the front. It uses part of the wood cuttings for food. The shipworm is found in the seas of temperate and tropical zones.

There are four species in USSR waters: Teredo navalis (up to 35 cm long) in the Black Sea and the Sea of Japan (Bay of Peter the Great); T. utriculus (up to 80 cm) and T. pedicellate in the Black Sea; and Bankia setacea (up to 120 cm) in the Sea of Japan and the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. The first three types are carried by the Gulf Stream to the Bering Sea, but they do not multiply there. Wood can be painted with poisonous paints or soaked in creosote to protect it from shipworms.

REFERENCES

Tarasov, N. I. Biologiia moria i flota. Moscow, 1943.
Riabchikov, P. I. Rasprostranenie drevotochtsev ν moriakh SSSR. Moscow, 1957.

O. A. SKARLATO