Schmidtea polychroa (Schmidt, 1861)

Vila-Farré, Miquel, Sluys, Ronald, Almagro, Ío, Handberg-Thorsager, Mette & Romero, Rafael, 2011, Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology, Zootaxa 2779, pp. 1-38 : 31

Schmidtea polychroa (Schmidt, 1861)

( Fig. 1 )

Comparative discussion. Schmidtea polychroa is a freshwater planarian with a Europe-wide distribution ( Dahm & Gourbault, 1978) that is also present in the Azores ( Malhao et al. 2007) and has been introduced into Canada ( Ball, 1969; Mettrick et al. 1970; Boddington & Mettrick, 1974). In the Iberian Peninsula, the species was previously recorded in Catalonia and Valencia (both in eastern Spain). Only two populations are known from central Spain ( Baguñà et al. 1981). We found new populations in the river Miño (Galicia, northwestern Spain), the river Esla (province of León, northern sector of the Iberian Peninsula), and new localities in the basin of the river Ebro, Valencia, and the provinces of Barcelona and Girona. The species has also been collected in Barcelona from the "Viver dels Tres Pins", a plant nursery with several ponds, where it coexists with Schmidtea mediterranea . The new records considerably extend the known distribution range of the species in the Iberian Peninsula ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distributional records of the genera Schmidtea, Ph. sp. and Ph. cf. vitta in the Iberian Peninsula. Data from Arndt, 1926; Baguñà et al. 1980, 81; Ribas, 1990; Altaba et al. 1991; unpublished records, this study.