Egyptian Journal of Petroleum (2016) xxx, xxx–xxx HOSTED BY Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute Egyptian Journal of Petroleum www.elsevier.com/locate/egyjp www.sciencedirect.com FULL LENGTH ARTICLE Sorting of Glossiphonia complanata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Rhynchobdellida: Glossiphoniidae) from three aquatic plants in Tigris River within Baghdad city Manar Dawood Salman a, Mohammed K. Shebli a, Mohammed Jassim Obed Alfalahi b, Allaa M. Aenab c,*, S.K. Singh c a Environment and Water Directorate – Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq b Environmental Engineer, Rasan Group Company, Erbil, Iraq c Environmental Engineering Department, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, India Received 10 June 2016; revised 26 October 2016; accepted 2 November 2016 KEYWORDS Abstract The present study shows that the reason for isolation of Glossiphonia complanata from Glossiphonia complanata; these aquatic plants was firstly founding of aquatic oligochaeta, snails and chironomidae that set- Aquatic plants; tled on aquatic plants as food. Secondly the aquatic plants itself represent favorable environment Snails; for growth and reproduction for G. complanata and as food for oligochaeta, chironomidae and Feeding of G. complanata snails. When the number of G. complanata increased the number of worms and snails decreased as observed. The aim of this study was to discover causes of isolation of G. complanata. Ó 2016 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction This species is one of the commonest leeches in fresh water and is usually rare on a muddy substratum and found Glossiphonia complanata species is one of phylum Annelida, chiefly on stones and macrophytes [14,16]. Although molluscs class clitellata, subclass Hirudinea, order Rhynchobdellida, consider its chief prey including Bithynia tentaculata, Lym- family Glossiphoniidae [7,12]. naea stagnalis, Physa fontinalis, Physa heterostropha, This species is broad and dorso-ventrally flattened brown- Planorbarius corneus, Planorbis vortex (L.), Potamopyrgus ish color. Eyes normally are three pairs in two rows parallel jenkinsi (smith), Pisidium spp., Sphaerium spp., it sucks the with the mid dorsal line, and have small anterior sucker and body fluids of aquatic oligochaetes and insect larvae, broad posterior sucker [7]. [4,5,8]. The young G. complanata gains its first meal by feed- ing on other leeches including Erpobdella octoculata, Dina lineata, Trocheta subviridis, Trocheta bykowskii, Hirudo * Corresponding author. medicinalis, Haemopis sanguisuga, Hemiclepsis marginata, E-mail address: [email protected] (A.M. Aenab). and Haementeria costata, that is considered an unusual Peer review under responsibility of Egyptian Petroleum Research feature of feeding. The attacked leech moves violently, Institute. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2016.11.001 1110-0621 Ó 2016 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Please cite this article in press as: M.D. Salman et al., Sorting of Glossiphonia complanata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Rhynchobdellida: Glossiphoniidae) from three aquatic plants in Tigris River within Baghdad city, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2016.11.001 2 M.D. Salman et al. burrowing into sand, or trying to remove the young leeches 2.3. Preparation of permanent slides with its posterior sucker [10,13,16]. Many aspects of the life cycle of this species were noticed The preserved worms were transferred to distilled water, then from [6,11]. The parent covers eggs that are laid in soft, transferred to a clean slide by a fine brush on which a drop of transparent cocoons that are attached to the substratum with polyvinyl lacto-phenol was added and covered with a cover its body for five to six days prior to hatching. The young slip then left overnight before examining under a compound G. complanata has left its parent, then grows to maturity, microscope (Olympus: made in japan). breeds and dies after about one or two years, depending upon local conditions. 2.4. Identification 2. Materials & methods The leech, Worms, Snails and Chironomids larvae were identi- fied according to [7,3,15,1,2] respectively. 2.1. Sampling 3. Results and discussion The 20 samples of aquatic plants: Eichhornia crassipes, Hydrella vorticellata and Phragmites australis are collected, We isolated 205 individuals of G. complanata from three kinds from different aquatic habitats inside Baghdad city on the of aquatic plants, 133 individuals were isolated from E. cras- Tigris River for a period from September 2015 to September sipes, 49 individuals were isolated from Hydrella verticillata 2016, using hand forklift to eradicate the plants. and 23 individuals were isolated from Phragmites australis. In addition to isolation of G. complanata from aquatic plants 2.2. Sorting method we isolated it from the mantle cavity of snails (Physa acuta, Viviparous viviparous, and Lymnaea auricularia) that settled The excised aquatic plants were collected in a container with on the same plants that represent their food. water from the river and then transferred to the laboratory 1128 Individuals of oligochaeta 12 species were sorted from where they are distributed into three aquarium of these aquatic plants belonging to the family Naididae, subfam- (40 Â 20 Â 20 cm) and left for about 2–5 days to allow the ily Naidinae (8 species), and subfamily Pristininae (2 species), invertebrates (Leech, worms, Snails and Chironomid larvae) family tubificidae (2 species) in addition to 3 species of Snails to settle down. To ventilate water in each aquarium an air and Chironomid larvae (Table 1). pump was used. The settled sediment on the floor of aquarium G. complanata was sorted from these aquatic plants because is collected with care by a dropper and transferred to Petri it considers aquatic plants as a refuge for hiding, when hungry dishes of 10 cm diameter. Then they were sorted carefully to or carrying young, also because of finding assemblages of dislodge them without damage using a dissecting microscope. aquatic oligochaeta, snails and chironomids larvae that are Then they were transferred to a clean Petri dish that contains considered the main source of food especially snails [5,8,11], a little amount of distilled water. Later on, 4% formaldehyde by extending a proboscis through its mouth to touch the prey was added drop by drop to the dish to immobilize them, 4% then releasing digestive enzymes from the tip of the proboscis, formalin was added to kill the worms and larvae then pre- allowing the species to suck up the fluids of the body of the served in 70% alcohol while the snails were sorted by hand prey. Generally fresh water invertebrates and especially aqua- from the plants. tic oligochaetes are associated with these aquatic plants Table 1 G. complanata and other taxa that appeared and are sorted from the aquatic plants. Taxa Eichhornia crassipes Hydrella verticillata Phragmites australis Total Naididae Glossiphonia complanata 133 49 23 205 Chaetogaster limnaei 78318 C. langi 48315 Dero dorsalis 079382 Stylaria fossularis 18 52 11 81 Nais stolci 343551 Pristina foreli 45 64 41 150 P. proboscidea 26 42 41 109 Tubificidae Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri 014115 Tubifex tubifex 922132 Molluscs Viviparous viviparous 0312253 Physa acuta 416020 Lymnaea auricularia 1708 Insects Chironomid larvae 200 77 12 289 Total 450 512 166 1128 Note: The families Naididae and Tubificidae are belonging to Phylum Oligochaeta. Please cite this article in press as: M.D. Salman et al., Sorting of Glossiphonia complanata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Rhynchobdellida: Glossiphoniidae) from three aquatic plants in Tigris River within Baghdad city, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2016.11.001 Sorting of Glossiphonia complanata from three aquatic plants 3 because either the aquatic plants itself resemble part of the from Different Aquatic Habitat in central Iraq (M.Sc. thesis), food or the microorganisms, bacteria and settled algae that College of Education (Ibn Al-Haithem), University of Baghdad, are found on aquatic plants are considered as a source of food 1975, p. 131. for these organisms. This result confirmed by Ref. [9] and [3] R.O. Brinkhurst, A Guide for the Identification of British these organisms resembles the main source of food for Aquatic Oligochaeta, 2nd ed., 1971, Scientific Publication No. 22 Biological Association. G. complanata. Considering the snails as prey was the reason [4] Ch. Bro¨ nmark, B. Malmqvist, Oecologia 69 (2) (1986) 268–276. for sorting leeches from it, hence when the number of leeches [5] R.W. Davies, R.P. Everett, Verh. Int. Verein. Theor. Angew. increase, the number of snails decrease [4]. Limnol. 19 (1975) 2816–2817. [6] M. de Eguileor, S. Daniel, B. Giordana, G. Lanzavechia, R. 4. Conclusion Valvassori, J. Exp. Zool. 269 (5) (1994) 389–402. [7] J.M. Elliott, K.H. Mann, A key to the British Freshwater leeches with notes on their life cycles and ecology. Scientific 1. G. complanata feed on oligochaeta (worms), chironomid Publication No. 40, Freshwater Biological Association, 1979. larvae, snails. [8] D.J. Klemm, Sterkiana (58) (1976) 1–50, 59, 1–20. 2. Oligochaeta (worms), chironomid larvae, snails settled on [9] D.M. Lodge, Aquat. Bot. 41 (1991) 195–224. aquatic plants for growth and reproduction. [10] T.K. McCarthy, Proc. R. Ir. Acad. 75b (1975) 401–451. 3. G. complanata lives inside the mantle cavity of snails [11] K.H. Mann, J. Anim. Ecol. 26 (1957) 99–111. because of founding of Dero dorsalis (worm) to eat it as [12] P. Myers, R. Espinosa, C.S. Parr, T. Jones, G.S. Hammond, T. food for G. complanata. A. Dewey, The Animal Diversity web (online) Accessed at http://animaldiversity.org2014. [13] R.T. Sawyer, North American Freshwater Leeches, Exclusive of the Piscicolidae with a Key to All Species, Illinois boil.