Crenobia alpina (Dana, 1776)

Stocchino, Giacinta Angela, 2018, 80 years of research on planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from Sardinia, Italy: an annotated checklist, Zootaxa 4532 (4), pp. 539-552 : 546

Crenobia alpina (Dana, 1776)

Crenobia alpina is restricted to the Gennargentu Massif (central-eastern Sardinia) ( Fig. 3 ). Up to now, five sexual populations of this European stenotherm species have been found at many cold springs, with temperatures ranging from 7 C° to 15 C°, at altitudes ranging from 1300 m to 1800 m asl. The first record dates back to 1980 when Pala et al. collected specimens from four stations. Besides a morphological study, these workers performed also preliminary karyological analyses, revealing a polyploid karyotype with a marked tendency to aneuploidy, with a mitotic chromosome number ranging from 28-30 to more than 40 ( Pala et al., 1980c).

All populations are characterized by a single pharynx and thus differ from the polypharyngeal forms C. alpina montenigrina ( Mràzek, 1904) , C. alpina anophtalma ( Mràzek, 1907) , and C. alpina teratophila ( Steinmann, 1908) ( Pala et al., 1980c; Stocchino et al., 2013c).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Geographic distribution of species of the genera Dendrocoelum, Atrioplanaria, Phagocata and Crenobia recorded from Sardinia. 1, Punta della Scomunica Spring, Asinara Island National Park; 2, Elighe Mannu Spring, Asinara Island National Park; 3, Sassari surroundings; 4, Su Coloru Cave; 5, Rio S. Stefano and Rio Stagnali, Caprera Island, La Maddalena Archipelago National Park; 6, Monte Majore Cave; 7, Sa Ucca ‘e su Peltusu Cave; 8, unnamed spring at Alà dei Sardi; 9, Gennargentu Massif; 10, Cuccuru Tiria Cave; 11, Baccu Arrosu Mine.