An example of a possible leech-bryozoan association in freshwater

Anna L Klass; Svetlana E Sokolova; Alexander V Kondakov; Yulia V Bespalaya; Mikhail Yu Gofarov; Alena A Tomilova; Ilya V Vikhrev; Ivan N Bolotov

doi:10.3897/zookeys.794.28088

An example of a possible leech-bryozoan association in freshwater

Zookeys. 2018 Nov 1:(794):23-30. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.794.28088. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Anna L Klass^{1

2}, Svetlana E Sokolova², Alexander V Kondakov^{1

2}, Yulia V Bespalaya^{1

2}, Mikhail Yu Gofarov^{1

2}, Alena A Tomilova², Ilya V Vikhrev^{1

2}, Ivan N Bolotov^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Northern Arctic Federal University, Arkhangelsk, Russia.
² N. Laverov Federal Center for Integrated Arctic Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Arkhangelsk, Russia.

Abstract

Associations of various invertebrate species with bryozoans and sponges are a well-known marine phenomenon but such epizooic communities are far less diverse in freshwater environments. Here an occurrence of numerous leeches Alboglossiphoniacf.papillosa (Braun, 1805), in interstitial spaces between zooids of a colony of the freshwater bryozoan species Plumatellaaff.fungosa (Pallas, 1768) in Eastern Siberia is described. To the best of our knowledge, this record appears to be the first known example of a leech-bryozoan association, although such relationships deserve further research.

Keywords: Bryozoa; Glossiphoniidae; Hirudinea; Plumatellidae; bryozoan-associated epibionts; eastern Siberia.