NEW RECORD OF LEECH Limnatis paluda (Hirudinida: Praobdellidae) FROM FERGANA VALLEY: ECOLOGICAL FEATURES AND COMPARISON WITH OTHER REGIONS
Abstract
The article describes the results of the study of leeches in the Fergana Valley, located in the eastern part of Uzbekistan. For the first time, the blood-feeding leech Limnatis paluda (Tennent, 1859) was recorded from the study area. It was found that small populations of this species are distributed in ten different biotopes of the Fergana Valley. Distribution coordinates of collected leech samples were determined, and ecological features were studied. Some external and internal morphologies of leeches were compared with species recorded from other regions, and similarities and differences were analyzed. It has been determined that L. paluda feeds on frogs in the wild, and the presence of more than two in a frog is fatal. 107 L. paluda were collected in the study, and it was determined that an average of 10.708.22 (range, 2-26) leeches could be collected per unit time. The density of this leech species per unit area in the Fergana Valley region of Uzbekistan was calculated as 0.270.21 (range, 0.05-0.65) leech/m 2 .