| |
Presented at the NABS Annual meeting, La Crosse, Wisconsin, 2001
OCCURRENCE OF TWO LEECH SPECIES (ANNELIDA: HIRUDINEA) ON FISHES IN THE KENTUCKY RIVER
J. E. Flotemersch1 and D. J. Klemm2. 1Oak Ridge Institute, Science & Education, c/o U. S. EPA, NERL, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr. , Cincinnati, OH 45268, 2U. S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL), EERD, ERB, Cincinnati, OH 45268
Little is known specifically on the feeding relationships between parasitic leeches and fish in North America. During an electrofishing survey conducted on the main stem of the Kentucky River in the summer of 2000, the presence of leeches was documented on six species of fish. The leech species observed were Piscicolaria reducta (Meyer, 1940) of the family Piscicolidae and Actinobdella pediculata (Hemingway, 1908) in the family Glossiphoniidae. Attachment locations for Piscicolaria reducta included various sites in the buccal cavity of green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), and spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus), on the caudal fin of logperch (Percina caprodes) and spotfin shiner (Notropis spilopterus), on the anal fin of spotfin shiner, and posterior to the eye of a largemouth bass. Attachment location observed for Actinobdella pediculata was on the inside of the operculum of a freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens). This study established new host and attachment locations, the diverse presence of Piscicolaria reducta on various fish species, and substantiated the high degree of host specificity of Actinobdella pediculata for the freshwater drum.
|
|
