Stenostomum uronephrium Nuttycombe, 1931

Noreña, Carolina, Eitam, Avi & Blaustein, Leon, 2008, “ Microturbellarian ” flatworms (Platyhelminthes) from freshwater pools: New species and records from Israel, Zootaxa 1705, pp. 1-20 : 4-5

Stenostomum uronephrium Nuttycombe, 1931

Locality. Temporary pools on Mount Kavul and Mount Shekhanya, Lower Galilee. Material. Many individuals. Live observation, squash preparations.

Ecological features. Stenostomum uronephrium is a characteristic species of lentic or stagnant waters with abundant vegetation ( Marcus, 1945; Noreña-Janssen, 1995). In Israel, it was collected during the winter (January 2001) in 35 of the 53 studied pools on Mount Kavul and Mount Shekhanya in the vicinity of Manof. The species disappeared in early spring, and was not collected again during the 2001–2 seasons. This may suggest important changes in the ecological factors of the pools. More studies are necessary to determine the cause of this temporal distribution.

Stenostomum uronephrium is a characteristic species of the Americas whose distribution extends from USA to Brazil and Argentina ( Nuttycombe & Waters, 1938; Marcus, 1945; Noreña-Janssen, 1995); within Europe it is known only from Germany, Russia ( Lanfranchi & Papi, 1978) and Poland ( Kolasa, 1977). S. uronephrium was reported in Israel for the first time by Eitam et al. (2004).