Mesostoma maculatum Hofsten, 1916

Mesostoma maculatum Hofsten, 1916 View in CoL

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an efficient predator of this flatworm; we have observed high predation rates in the laboratory (Eitam and Blaustein, unpublished data).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 View in CoL 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.