Samoa Guide, 5. Status of species in American Samoa

Mammals	3 bats	Samoan fruit bat(4)	Sheath-tailed bat (C1)		Sheathtailed bat?	rats, feral pigs, dogs, cats, house mouse	1
Birds	18 land/water birds, 7 regular migrants, 20 seabirds	Samoan starling	Spotless crake (C1), Friendly ground dove (C1), Many-colored fruit dove (C1)	White-faced heron, 9 seabirds	Mao, Megapode	Mynas, Bulbul, Rock dove, Red junglefowl	1,2
Reptiles: land	4 geckos, 7 skinks, 1 snake		Pacific boa snake (R)			marine toad*, house gecko, potted soil snake	1
Fish: freshwater	8-12 fishes(5)	Stiphodon hydoreibatus				Mexican molly, mosquitofish, tilapia	3
Crustaceans	9 stream shrimps, several land crabs		coconut crabs are rare in some areas				4
Insects	2,523+ insects(6)					probably many	5
Snails	47 land snails, 17 freshwater snails	16 land snails	8 land snails (C1, SC), several others rare or declining		Diastole matafaoi	African snail, rosy wolf snail, 3 slugs, 22 others	6
Plants	343 flowering plants, 135 ferns	30%	109 species (R)			over 250 alien species, many invasive	7

1. General: (1) See checklists in this Guide. (2) Amerson et al. 1982. Wildlife and wildlife habitat of A. Samoa. Vol. 1. Environment and ecology. US Fish & Wildlife Service (Wash. DC). 119p. Sheath-tailed bat: Grant et. al. 1994. Decline of sheath-tailed bat on A. Samoa. Micronesica 27:133-137. Misc. introduced organisms: Tauili’ili, P. & A. Vargo. 1993. History of biological controls in A. Samoa. Micronesica Suppl. 4:57-60.

2. Megapode: Steadman, D. 1993. Bird bones from the To’aga site: prehistoric loss of seabirds and megapodes. Chapt. 14. In: P. Kirch and T. Hunt (eds.). The To’aga site: three millennia of Polynesian occupation in the Manu’a islands, American Samoa. Contributions Univ. California (Berkeley), No. 51. 248p.

3. Stream fish: (1) D. Vargo & K. van Houte-Howes, A. Samoa Community College (pers. com.). (2) US Army Corps of Engineers. 1981. American Samoa stream inventory, island of Tutuila. Rept. by USACE for A. Samoa Water Resources Study. 121p. (3) Burger, I. & J. Maciolek. 1981. Map inventory of non-marine aquatic resources of A. Samoa. US Fish & Wildlife Service (Seattle). 182p. (4) FishBase 2004 <www.fishbase.org>. Introduced fish: Eldredge, L. 1994. Perspectives in aquatic exotic species management in the Pacific islands. Vol. 1. Introductions of commercially significant aquatic organisms to the Pacific islands. South Pacific Comm., Inshore Fisheries Project Tech. Document No. 7 and SPREP Reports and Studies Series No. 78. 127p.

4. Freshwater shrimp: (1) D. Vargo & K. van Houte-Howes, American Samoa Community College (pers. com.). (2) Cook, R. 2004. Macrofauna of Laufuti Stream, Ta’u, American Samoa, and the role of physiography in its zonation. Pacific Science 58:7-21.

5. Insects and related arthropods: Kami, K. & S. Miller. 1998. Samoan insects and related
arthropods: checklist and bibliography. Bishop Museum (Honolulu), Tech. Rept. 13. 121p.

6. Land snails: (1) Cowie, R. 2001. Decline and homogenization of Pacific faunas: the land
snails of American Samoa. Biological Conservation 99:207-222. (2) Cowie, R. 1998. Catalog of the non-marine snails and slugs of the Samoan islands. Bishop Museum Bulletin of Zoology 3, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 122p. Freshwater snails: (1) Haynes, A. 1990. The number of freshwater gastropods on Pacific islands and the theory of island biogeography. Malacologia 31:237-248. (2) Bardi, E., S. Fanolua. K. vanHoute-Howes & D. Vargo. 2004. Freshwater snails of Tutuila Island. American Samoa Community College. 6p.

7. Plants: Whistler, A. 2003. Plants of concern in American Samoa. US Fish and Wildlife Service (Honolulu). 56p. Introduced plant species: Space, J. & T. Flynn. 2000. Observations on invasive plant species in American Samoa. Rept. by USDA Forest Service (Honolulu).

8. Marine mammals: Reeves et al. 1999. Marine mammals in the area served by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). SPREP (Samoa). 48p.

9. Marine fish: Wass, R. 1984. An annotated checklist of the fishes of Samoa. NOAA Tech. Report SSRF-781. 43p. Wass notes that 40 mostly undescribed fish species are known only from the Samoan Archipelago but that the majority of these will likely be found elsewhere in the region as more extensive collections are made.

10. Corals: (1) Birkeland, C., 2004. Draft species list for American Samoa. (2) Fisk, D. & C. Birkeland. 2002. Status of coral communities on the volcanic islands of A. Samoa. Rept. to Dept. Marine & Wildlife Resources (A. Samoa). 135p. Introduced marine invertebrates: (1) Eldredge, L. 1994 (cited above in #3). (2) Cole, S., et al. 2003. A survey of introduced marine species in Pago Pago Harbor, Fagatele Bay, and the National Park of A. Samoa. Rept. by Bishop Museum (Hawaii).

11. Algae: (1) Skelton, P. 2003. Seaweeds of Am. Samoa. Report to DMWR by Int’l. Ocean Inst. & Oceania Research and Development Assoc. (Australia). 103p. (2) Skelton, P. & R. South. 2004. New records and notes on marine benthic algae of A. Samoa – Chlorophyta & Phaeophyta. Cryptogamie Algol. 25:291-312.

Marine mammals	11 whales,(7) 7 dolphins(7)		Humpback whale (E), Sperm whale (E)				1,8
Reptiles: marine	2 sea turtles (hawksbill & green)		Hawksbill turtle (E), Green turtle (T)	Leatherback turtle, Olive ridley turtle, Banded sea snake			1
Fish/sharks	890 coral reef species, 101 deep or pelagic	see note in Reference 9	many species overfished	whale shark			9
Invertebrates	200 corals (approx.)		giant clams are rare in some areas		giant clam (Hippopus hippopus)(8)	2 giant clams (Tridacna derasa, T. gigas) & 30 misc. species	10
Marine plants	239+ algae species, 2-3 seagrasses, 2 mangrove species					4 algae species	11