We studied the fauna of leech and leech-like species inhabiting main water streams of Eastern Siberia and its tributaries, which are attributed to Lake Baikal basin and Lena River basin. Here we present their list for the first time. This study was mainly aimed for free-living parasitic and carnivorous leeches whereas piscine parasites were not included specially. In total, the potamic leech fauna of Eastern Siberia includes 12 described species belonging to 10 genera. Representatives of three unidentified species of two genera Erpobdella and Barbronia have been also recorded. 1. Introduction The fauna of Siberian leeches has never been object of a target study. Fragmentary data are presented in the papers of Lukin and Epstein [1, 2]. Recent paper of Kaygorodova [3] corrected the species list of fauna of the unique Siberian Lake Baikal. To date, 20 leech species are reported from there. Victor Epstein studied piscine leeches in fresh waters of former USSR [2]. He indicated nine species in Siberia and the Far East; only four species of them were found in the rivers of Eastern Siberia. Thus, up to date three species belonging to family Piscicolidae in rivers near the Lake Baikal (source of Angara, delta of Selenga and Upper Angara) were known, namely, Cystobranchus mammillatus (Malm, 1863), Baicalobdella torquata (Grube 1871), Acipenserobdella volgensis (Zykoff, 1903) [2, 4], and one leech-like fish parasite Acanthobdella peledina inhabiting solely northern part of the region [2, 5–7]. Representatives of other leech families of Eastern Siberia have not been mentioned in the literature. This study is aimed to fill the gap in our knowledge of species diversity of Siberian leeches. 2. Methodology We used in this study the extensive biological material collected by the authors in the Chechuy River (September 2010, August 2011), the Kirenga River, the Lena River, and the Belaya River (August 2011), the Kudareyka River (August 2011–May 2012), and the Angara River (October 2011–May 2012). Piscine leeches were collected by hand directly from infected fish and amphipods. Free-living leeches were washed from macrophytes and different substrates. Biological material was fixed in ethanol with gradually increasing the concentration from 10% to 80%. Morphological analysis was conducted by Irina A. Kaygorodova with a stereomicroscope WILD M4C-61 149 and a binocular microscope Axiostar plus (Carl Zeiss Microimaging Gmb). Species definition was done with identification keys [1, 2, 8] and the original descriptions [9] according to the modern classification of the group.
References
[1]
E. I. Lukin, Leeches of Fresh and Saline Waters (Fauna of the USSR. Leeches), vol. 1, Nauka, Leningrad, Russia, 1976.
[2]
V. M. Epstein, “Annelida,” in Key of the Freshwater Fish Parasites of the USSR Fauna, O. A. Skarlato, Ed., vol. 3, pp. 340–372, Nauka, Leningrad, Russia, 1987.
[3]
A. Kaygorodova, “An illustrated checklist of leech species from Lake Baikal (Eastern Siberia, Russia),” Dataset Papers in Biology, Article ID 261521, 4 pages, 2013.
[4]
N. M. Pronin, “Distribution of Acanthobdella peledina Grube, 1851 (Hirudinea), a parasite of freshwater fishes, in waters of the USSR,” in Parasitologia, vol. 1, pp. 92–97, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 1971.
[5]
N. M. Pronin, “The finding of the subarctic leeches, Acanthobdella peledina and Cystobranchus mammillatus, in the Lake Baikal basin and the reasons for their absence in Lake Baikal itself,” Parazitologiia, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 555–558, 1979.
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A. N. Matveev and N. M. Pronin, “New data on distribution of the ancient leech Acanthobdella peledina Grube, 1851 (Hirudinea),” vol. 3 of Biology. Ecology, no. 3, pp. 89–91, Proceedings of the Irkutsk State University, 2010.
[7]
I. A. Kaygorodova, E. V. Dzyuba, and N. M. Pronin, “Leech-like parasites (Clitellata, Acanthobdellida) infecting native and endemic Eastern Siberian salmon fishes,” The Scientific World Journal, Article ID 652827, pp. 1–8, 2012.
[8]
H. Nesemann and E. Neubert, “Clitellata, Branchiobdellada, Acanthobdellada, Hirudinea,” in Susswasserfauna von Mitteleuropa, J. Schwoebel and P. Zwig, Eds., vol. 6, pp. 1–178, Spectrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, 1999.
[9]
N. Livanow, “Acanthobdella peledina Grube, 1851,” Morphological Study, vol. 72, no. 5–8, pp. 1–266, 1905.
[10]
C. Holmquist, “A fish leech of the genus Acanthobdella found in North America,” Hydrobiologia, vol. 44, no. 2-3, pp. 241–245, 1974.
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A. K. Hauck, M. J. Fallon, and C. V. Burger, “New host and geographical records for the leech Acanthobdella peledina grube 1851 (Hirudinea, Acanthobdellidae),” Journal of Parasitology, vol. 65, article 989, no. 6, 1979.
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A. Bielecki, K. Palinska, and J. Cichocka, “New data about rare leech species -Theromyzon maculosum (Rathke, 1862) (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniidae),” TEKA Komisji Ochrony i Kszta？towania ？rodowiska Przyrodniczego, vol. 6, pp. 13–20, 2009.
[13]
N. Livanow, “Die Hirudineen-Gattung Hemiclepsis Vejd,” Zoologische Jahrbuecher (Systematik), vol. 17, pp. 345–360, 1902.
[14]
E. I. Lukin, “On immiscibility of the Baikal and common Palearctic fauna of leeches,” Doklady Akademii Nauk, vol. 135, no. 2, pp. 489–492, 1960.
