Aspectos ecológicos e distribuição dos moluscos límnicos e seus epibiontes ciliados em quatro municípios da microrregião de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

Checklist studies on the malacofauna are of great interest since it is the first step to the development of more applied research; provides material for taxonomic studies; information on species richness - native, exotic and new records as well as on the distribution of species that act in parasites transmission. It also provides information on the ecology of the species, for example, the influence of environmental parameters and interaction with other organisms. Epibiotic interactions between molluscs and ciliates have been reported mainly in Europe. However, most of these studies report the epibiose the marine environment and do not address ecological aspects of the association between the basibionts and the epibionts. The epibiose usually has a generalist character, but some epibiont species can colonize specifically one or a few species of basibiontes. The attachment sites on the basibiont are also selected according to the epibiont ecological requirements, and are influenced by biological, physiology and behavioral features of the basibiont, but also by physical factors. In addition, studies have shown that the shells of molluscs are favorable microhabitats to colonization. This study aimed to survey limnic molluscs, analyze the composition and structure of ciliates community, and investigate the spatial distribution of ciliates in the shells of ancilid molluscs in Juiz de Fora microregion. This study reported ten species of freshwater snails: Biomphalaria intermedia, Biomphalaria peregrina, Biomphalaria straminea, Biomphalaria tenagophila, Drepanotrema cimex, Gundlachia cf. lutzi, Physa acuta, Physa marmorata, Pomacea sp. and Pseudosuccinea columella. We also found 19 species of ciliates associated to the molluscs` shells: Carchesium polypinum, Epistylis plicatilis, Epistylis chrysemydis, Epistylis sp. 1, Epistylis sp. 2, Opercularia articulata, Opercularia nutans, Opercularia sp. 1 Opercularia sp. 2, Vorticella campanula, Vorticella convallaria, Vorticella sp. 1 Vorticella sp. 2 Vorticella sp. 3 Thuricolla sp. Platycola cf. decumbens, Tokophrya cf. lenarum, Tokophrya quadripartita, and Stentor sp. Our results show the need to expand the studies on malacofauna as well as the association between snails and epibionts, since it is the first record of epibiosis by ciliates on ancylid snails in the Neotropics and the first record of epibiosis for the species G. cf. lutzi, P. marmorata, P. columella and B. peregrina. In addition, we register for the first time the occurrence of G. cf. lutzi, D. cimex, B. intermedia for the municipality of Juiz de Fora, B. tenagophila for the municipality of Chácara and B. peregrina for the municipalities of Lima Duarte and Belmiro Braga. Our results confirm the importance of holding molluscs surveys and the importance of addressing epibiotic association between molluscs and ciliates, since there are few studies concerning this ecological relationship.