A New Locality of Alien Oligochaete SpeciesBranchiura sowerbyiin Upper Oder River in Poland

Distribution of the alien Tubificid worm Branchiura sowerbyi (Beddard, 1892) in Morocco

“…Furthermore, it has been shown that B. sowerbyi is an alternate host for some fish parasites, such as Thelohanellus hovorkai Achmerov, 1960 (Myxosporea, Myxozoa), which can cause reduction of fish abundance (Liyanage et al, 2003;Paunovic et al, 2005). Climate changes and the increase in water temperatures, in addition to the continuous deterioration of freshwater ecosystems in Africa, will put this thermophilic species in a better position against native fauna, favouring its expansion (Verdonschot, 2007;Cebulska and Krodkiewska, 2017). Therefore, detecting and monitoring the expansion of this alien species within the colonized areas and studies improving biological, ecological and phylogenetic knowledge are urgently required.…”

“…This thermophilic species originates from the Sino-Indian region, but is now found all over the world except for Antarctica, and is currently considered a cosmopolitan species because of human activity (Tobias, 1972;Timm, 1979;Timm and Abarenkov, 2023). Due to its fast dispersal, success in adaptation and mass occurrence in different biotopes, B. sowerbyi could be characterized as an invasive species (Raposeiro et al, 2009;Cebulska and Krodkiewska, 2017).…”