The present state of the leech fauna (Annelida, Hirudinea) in the Upper Irtysh cascade of water reservoirs

By

Fedorova, Lyudmila
Kaygorodova, Irina A.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

596

Pages

1-12

Subjects

Hirudinea , Species diversity , Upper Irtysh water reservoirs

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.596.7886

 

Abstract

Hirudinea is a small and ecologically important group of aquatic organisms. However, up to date, the leech fauna of Kazakhstan is poorly studied. The presence of large under-collected areas, such as the Upper Irtysh basin, makes biodiversity studies concerning these invertebrates from Kazakhstan relevant. In this paper, the latest information on species diversity of the freshwater hirudofauna of the Upper Irtysh cascade of water reservoirs, the Kazakhstan part of Irtysh River, is presented. It includes 10 free-living and parasitic species, of which 7 and 9 inhabit the Shulbinsk and the Bukhtarma reservoirs, respectively. These species belong to 2 orders, 3 families and 6 genera. The faunal list highlights four potentially new morphological species (Alboglossiphonia sp., Erpobdella sp., Piscicola sp. 1 and Piscicola sp. 2). Besides them, another three species Erpobdella vilnensis, Helobdella stagnalis and Theromyzon tessulatum recorded for the first time in the area. The exact systematic position is stated for all leech taxa. Each species from the list accompanied with information on taxonomic synonymy, data on its geographic distribution, and brief summary of morphological and ecological characteristics.