Castrada viridis Volz, 1898

Noreña, Carolina, Eitam, Avi & Blaustein, Leon, 2008, “ Microturbellarian ” flatworms (Platyhelminthes) from freshwater pools: New species and records from Israel, Zootaxa 1705, pp. 1-20 : 13-14

Castrada viridis Volz, 1898

(Figure 10)

Locality. Temporary pools on Mount Kavul and Mount Shekhanya, Lower Galilee. Temporary, artificial pool in Hai Bar Carmel Nature Reserve.

Material. Several specimens, live observations, squash preparations, photographs, fixed material for histology and sagittally-sectioned individual deposited in the Department of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, Israel, Catalogue Number VR-25074.

Ecological features. In general, the specimens of Castrada viridis collected in Israel are larger in size than those from populations of northern Europe. C. viridis is a typical inhabitant of small bodies of water in spring and autumn. In Israel, it was collected in large temporary pools from January to April (2000–2002), with large populations from late February (Fig. 11) (see also Eitam et al., 2004).

Castrada viridis is already known from Europe ( Luther, 1963; Young, 1972; Mack-Fira, 1974; Gamo & Noreña-Janssen, 1998) and was reported from Israel for the first time by Eitam et al., (2004).

FIGURE 10: Castrada viridis Volz, 1898 . A. Habitus; lightly squashed. B. Detail of the blind sac and atrium. FIGURE 11: Numbers of Castrada viridis collected from the two largest pools at Mt. Kavul/Mt. Shekhanya during the winter and spring of 2001–2002. Pool 1 has a maximal surface area of 166 m 2 and maximal water depth of 80 cm. Pool 2 has a maximal surface area of 74 m 2 and maximal water depth of 38 cm.