Alboglossiphonia hyalina (O. F. Müller, 1774)

Ahmed, Raja Ben, Romdhane, Yasmina & Tekaya, Saïda, 2015, Checklist and Distribution of Marine and freshwater leeches (Annelida, Clitellata, Hirudinea) in Tunisia with identification key, Ecologica Montenegrina 2 (1), pp. 3-19 : 5-6

Alboglossiphonia hyalina (O. F. Müller, 1774)

( Fig. 2B)

Diagnosis: The body is flattened and uniform yellowish coloured. The rounded head has three pairs of eyes. The dorsal surface is more or less rough by small regularly arranged papillae. The genital pores are joined and open in a common pore. Ectoparasite of freshwater Gastropods, sometimes penetrating into the mantle cavity.

Habitat: Found under stones, it seems to prefer stagnant to slow flowing water bodies often of artificial origin such as drainage basin. The presence of aquatic molluscs appears to be important.

Distribution:

A. hyalina was described from Denmark under the name Hirudo heteroclita var. hyalina . It has further been reported from Poland as Glossiphonia heteroclita var. hyalina ( Pawlowski, 1936) . A common species, occurring in central­ and western­Europe ( Soós 1969, Nesemann & Neubert 1999). Recently, Jueg et al. (2013) collected it in Central Asia ( Kyrgyzstan).

In Tunisia ( Fig. 5B), this species was reported for the first time by Ben Ahmed et al. (2008a) in Lebna drainage basin (36.44326 N, 10. 55 255 E). In the present study, we add its presence in Port Prince drainage basin (36.51162 N, 10. 39404 E). It seems that this species has a limited distribution and up till now only known from two localities in Nabeul governorate in the North East of the country .