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An invaded invader: high prevalence of entocytherid ostracods on the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852) in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula

  • OSTRACODA – BIOSTRATIGRAPHY AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
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Abstract

The American red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852) was introduced in 1973 into the Iberian Peninsula for commercial purposes. As a result of both the expansion from the Iberian Peninsula and, probably, further introductions in other European countries, now it is widely distributed throughout much of Europe. The ecological impacts of this invading crayfish have received increasing attention, but nothing is known about its symbiotic entocytherid ostracods outside the American continent. The present survey has examined more than 200 crayfishes from 12 localities distributed over a wide area of Eastern Spain. Entocytherid ostracods were extracted from individual crayfishes and they were identified, counted, assigned to developmental instars and sexed. In all the study locations but one, we found at least one crayfish individual infected by entocytherid ostracods and the species determined was the same in all cases: Ankylocythere sinuosa (Rioja, 1942). The number of ostracods on individual P. clarkii varied notably in relation to crayfish size and also differed significantly among sampling sites. The crayfish size effects on ostracod densities might be related to the amount of resources and to the crayfish age and moulting frequency affecting ostracod distribution and population structure. In addition, the spatial variation in ostracod densities could also be related to site-specific habitat traits and the variability of crayfish population dynamics. Our study represents the first citation of an alien entocytherid species in Europe and demonstrates its wide distribution in the Iberian Peninsula. Further research is needed to know the potential effects of this ostracod species on the ecology of P. clarkii and of native species, with implications on the management of this aquatic invader.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Pretus (Univ. of Barcelona) for establishing contacts among the authors of this paper and for attracting our attention to the ostracods extracted from crayfishes. J. A. Gil-Delgado (Univ. Valencia) and CIAMA (La Alfranca) are acknowledged for organising the sampling and for providing permits in Zaragoza. We thank Ignacio Lacomba, Conselleria de Medio Ambiente, Agua, Urbanismo y Vivienda, Generalitat Valenciana for his help and support. We thank master students F. Peris, O. Mollá, F. J. Peris, and F. J. Vicent who helped in the field with the sample collections. J. M. Poquet (Univ. Granada) assisted FM in the fieldwork conducted in Granada and J. M. Gil-Sànchez provided information on adequate sampling sites. We thank A. Portheault for field assistance in the Doñana National Park. Yasushi Kusuoka and Gregorio Fernández-Leborans assisted us for the identification of the ciliates commensals on the ostracods. The personnel at the Electron Microscopy unit of the SCSIE (Univ. Valencia) helped us with sample preparation and the SEM pictures. This work was largely funded by the ECOINVADER (CGL2008-01296/BOS) project from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. We are also grateful to all the project members for their discussion and ideas. Finally, we are very grateful to Robin Smith and an anonymous referee for their suggestions to improve an earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Valencia, Av. Dr. Moliner, 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain

    J. A. Aguilar-Alberola, F. Mesquita-Joanes, A. Mestre & J. Rueda

  2. Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    S. López & J. C. Casanova

  3. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 605 63, Brno, Czech Republic

    A. Ribas

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  1. J. A. Aguilar-Alberola
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Correspondence to F. Mesquita-Joanes.

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Guest editors: D. A. Dermeval, R. L. Pinto & K. Martens / Ostracoda – Biostratigraphy and Applied Ecology

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Aguilar-Alberola, J.A., Mesquita-Joanes, F., López, S. et al. An invaded invader: high prevalence of entocytherid ostracods on the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852) in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula. Hydrobiologia 688, 63–73 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0660-1

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