Protistology 4 (2) 129-134 (2005)
Species of the Paramecium aurelia complex in Russia, Lower Volga Basin
Ewa Przyboś 1, Maria Rautian 2 and Alexey Potekhin 2
1 Department of Experimental Zoology, Institute of Systematics and Evolution
of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Summary
The Lower Volga Basin is very rich in species of the Paramecium aurelia complex. The presence of the
following species has been revealed there: P. primaurelia, P. biaurelia, P. triaurelia, P. pentaurelia, P. sexaurelia,
P. septaurelia, and P. novaurelia. P. septaurelia was recorded in the Volga Basin for the first time in Europe
(Przyboś et al., 2004); P. pentaurelia and P. sexaurelia are rare in Europe. In some sampling places
several (up to four in one sample) species can occur in one and the same population. Special attention is devoted to the
frequent occurrence of P. septaurelia in the region of investigation. The idea of Schewiakoff (1893) about the role
of birds' and other animals' migrations in dispersal of ciliates is discussed in the context of the data obtained.
Key words: Paramecium aurelia species complex, distribution of species, species competition, species
expansion
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