Mesostoma maculatum Hofsten, 1916

Noreña, Carolina, Eitam, Avi & Blaustein, Leon, 2008, “ Microturbellarian ” flatworms (Platyhelminthes) from freshwater pools: New species and records from Israel, Zootaxa 1705, pp. 1-20 : 8

Mesostoma maculatum Hofsten, 1916

Locality. Temporary pools on Mount Kavul and Mount Shekhanya, Lower Galilee.

Material. Many individuals. Live observations, squash preparations, whole-mounted individual, and two sagittally-sectioned individuals deposited in the Department of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, Israel, Catalogue Number VR-25080 and VR-25081.

Ecological features. Mesostoma maculatum lives in lentic waters, springs and brooks. In Israel, it was collected in temporary pools of Mount Kavul and Mount Shekhanya (March 2000, March 2001, January 2002) and in a temporary pool in Keren Carmel (March 2002). It tends to be negatively associated with larval Salamandra salamandra infraimmaculata , probably because Salamandra is an efficient predator of this flatworm; we have observed high predation rates in the laboratory (Eitam and Blaustein, unpublished data).

Mesostoma maculatum is known from Finland ( Luther, 1963), and Sweden ( Steinböck, 1932). It was reported from Israel for the first time by Eitam et al. (2004); this is the southern–most record for this species.