A new locality of alien oligochaete species Branchiura sowerbyi in Upper Oder River in Poland

摘要

A new locality of the Asian thermophilic aquatic oligochaete Branchiura sowerbyi Beddard, 1892 (Oligochaeta, Naididae) was recorded in the Upper Oder River. Until now, this species has been only noted in a few localities in Poland: in the Szczecin Lagoon at the mouth of Oder River to Baltic Sea, in the heated Konin lake system (West Poland) and in the middle course of the Oder River. In our study, B. sowerbyi was found on one site (108 km of the river course) that is located more than 400 km from its previous recordings in the Oder River. This finding may show that B. sowerbyi has spread upstream. It should be noted that, as a rule, low abundance of this species may be the reason for the small number of its recordings, so further studies related to distribution and impact of B. sowerbyi on native oligochaetes are needed.