Piscicola respirans Troschel, 1850

Schenková, Jana, Sychra, Jan, Košel, Vladimír, Kubová, Nela & Horecký, Jakub, 2009, Freshwater leeches (Annelida: Clitellata: Hirudinida) of the Czech Republic (Central Europe): check-list, new records, and remarks on species distributions, Zootaxa 2227, pp. 32-52 : 42

Piscicola respirans Troschel, 1850

Synonym: Cystobranchus respirans Brumpt, 1900

Records: Lukovský Brook, Luková [6165], 49˚52'10"N / 16˚37'39"E, lgt. SV (2007), det. PK (2008); Morava River, Moravičany [6267], 49˚45'19"N / 16˚58'32"E, lgt. SV (2006), det. PK (2008); Vlára River, Svatý Štĕpán [6974], 49˚02’05”N / 18˚03’03”E, lgt. PK (2007), det. PK (2008) ( Figure 2 ).

Habitats: Piscicola respirans has been collected from small to medium-sized rivers and brooks, located in low or mid-elevations (250–400 m a.s.l.) of the country. Similar to P. geometra , P. re s p i r a n s is most commonly collected from its fish host; it is rarely present in general macrobenthic samples.

Status: Recent records for this species suggest that P. respirans is a rare species with a scattered distribution in the Czech Republic. All recent records for P. respirans are from the Morava River basin.

Figures

FIGURE 2. The distribution of selected leech species (Annelida, Clitellata, Hirudinida: the families Glossiphoniidae and Piscicolidae) in the Czech Republic recorded during the years 1998 through 2008, based upon published and unpublished records, and specimens collected during this study.