Summary
The prey utilization of Glossiphonia complanata and Helobdella stagnalis from Bruce Lake, Alberta, Canada was examined quantitatively using serological techniques. While considerable prey range overlap occurred between the species, niche overlap was low during the winter, peaked in March and declined through the summer. Temporal differences in feeding and intraspecific weight class differences in prey utilization were found in both species but more distinctly in G. complanata. It is suggested that co-existance of G. complanata and H. stagnalis is based on adjustments of weight class food resource partitioning on a temporal basis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Davies RW (1969) The production of antisera for detecting specific triclad antigens in the gut contents of predators. Oikos 20:248–260
Davies RW (1973) The geographical distribution of freshwater Hirudinoidea in Canada. Canadian Journal of Zoology 51:531–546
Davies RW, Everett RP (1975) The feeding of four species of freshwater Hirudinoidea in Southern Alberta. Verhandlungen Internationale Vereinigung für Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie 19:2816–2827
Davies RW, Wrona FJ, Linton L (1979) A serological study of prey selection by Helobdella stagnalis (Hirudinoidea). Journal of Animal Ecology 48:181–194
Davies RW, Wrona FJ, Linton L, Wilkialis J (in press) Inter- and intraspecific analyses of the food niches of two sympatric species of Erpobdellidae (Hirudinoidea) in Alberta, Canada. Oikos
Elliott JM, Mann KH (1979) A key to the British freshwater leeches with notes on their life cycles and ecology. Freshwater Biological Association Scientific Publication No. 40
Learner MA, Potter DWB (1974) Life-history and production of the leech Helobdella stagnalis (L.) (Hirudinea) in a shallow eutrophic reservoir in South Wales. Journal of Animal Ecology 43:199–208
Mann KH (1957a) A study of population of the leech Glossiphonia complanata. Journal of Animal Ecology 26:99–111
Mann KH (1957b) The breeding, growth and age-structure of a population of the leech Helobdella stagnalis (L.). Journal of Animal Ecology 26:171–177
Poole RW (1974) An introduction to quantitative ecology. McGraw-Hill Book Co, New York, pp 532
Reynoldson TB, Davies RW (1970) Food niche and co-existence in lake-dwelling triclads. Journal of Animal Ecology 39:599–617
Schoener TW (1970) Nonsynchronous spatial overlap of lizards in patchy habitats. Ecology 51:408–418
Siegel S (1956) Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sicences. McGraw-Hill Book Co, New York
Soos A (1969) Identification key to the leech (Hirudinoidea) genera of the world, with a catalogue of the species. VI. Family: Glossiphoniidae. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 15:397–454
Tillman DL, Barnes JR (1973) The reproductive biology of the leech Helobdella stagnalis (L.) in Utah Lake, Utah. Freshwater Biology 3:137–146
Wilkialis J (1970) Investigations on the biology of leeches of the Glossiphoniidae family. Zoologica Poloniae 20:29–54
Wishart D (1975) Clustan IC user manual. Computer Centre University College London, pp 124
Wrona FJ, Davies RW, Linton L (1979) Analysis of the food niche of Glossiphonia complanata (Hirudinoidea: Glossiphoniidae). Canadian Journal of Zoology 57:2136–2142
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wrona, F.J., Davies, R.W., Linton, L. et al. Competition and coexistance between Glossiphonia complanata and Helobdella stagnalis (Glossiphoniidae: Hirudinoidea). Oecologia 48, 133–137 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00347001
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00347001