Mobile freshwater reefs: ectoparasites and ectocomensal epibionts on the bottom-dwelling freshwater turtle Hydromedusa tectifera

SANCHEZ ROCIO MARIA; ALCALDE LEANDRO; LUCCHELLI SOFIA

Dunedin

Congreso; 9th World Congress of Herpetology; 2020

Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles

The present work describes the community of ectoparasites (EP) and ectocomensal epibionts (EE) thatinhabits on the chelid turtle Hydromedusa tectifera from an urban-suburban stream (Rodriguez stream,La Plata City, Buenos Aires province, Argentina). We also test variations in the taxa composition andabundance of EP and EE by comparing two stream sections, one mid-section impacted by urban pollution(S1) and other rural placed near stream headwaters (S2).Turtles were sampled manually during summer (2018), winter and spring (2019), sexed and sized (straightcarapace length and weight) and all EP and EE were removed at the moment of the capture and carriedto laboratory (Ethanol 70%). Importance of each EP-EE was assessed using the IRI index. Significantvariations on the numeric frequency of fundamental EP-EE IRI taxon types among stream sites and sex ofthe turtles were analyzed using three non parametric ANOVA (Kruskal Wallis).We caught 65 turtles and found 1251 invertebrates that conformed a 9 taxon types EP-EE assemblage.According the IRI, the relevant EP-EE types were immature quironomids, amphipods and leeches. Wedetected significant differences for amphipods (H= 21.36, p= 0.0004, df= 5), quironomids (H= 12.77, p=0.02, df= 5) and leeches (H= 8.68; p= 0.02, df= 5). Post-hoc Dunn?s test showed that (1) numericfrequency of chironomids is higher in S2-males than in both sexes from S1, (2) S1 females and juvenileshave fewer amphipods than S2-males; and (3) S2 females and juveniles presented fewer leeches than S1-females.