The aquatic annelid fauna of the San Marcos River headsprings, Hays County, Texas

By

Worsham, McLean
Gibson, Randy
Huffman, David

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

618

Pages

1-14

Subjects

Annelida , Aphanoneura , Branchiobdellida , Clitellata , freshwater Nemertea , Hirudinida , oligochaetous clitellates , spring fauna

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.618.8560

 

Abstract

The San Marcos River in Central Texas has been well studied and has been demonstrated to be remarkably specious. Prior to the present study, research on free-living invertebrates in the San Marcos River only dealt with hard bodied taxa with the exception of the report of one gastrotrich, and one subterranean platyhelminth that only incidentally occurs in the head spring outflows. The remainder of the soft-bodied metazoan fauna that inhabit the San Marcos River had never been studied. Our study surveyed the annelid fauna and some other soft-bodied invertebrates of the San Marcos River headsprings. At least four species of Hirudinida, two species of Aphanoneura, one species of Branchiobdellida, and 11 (possibly 13) species of oligochaetous clitellates were collected. Other vermiform taxa collected included at least three species of Turbellaria and one species of Nemertea. We provide the results of the first survey of the aquatic annelid fauna of the San Marcos Springs, along with a dichotomous key to these annelids that includes photos of some representative specimens, and line drawings to elucidate potentially confusing diagnostic structures.