On the Distribution of the Neoechinorhynchus tumidus (Eoacanthocephala: Neoechinorhynchidae) in Northern Asia

Abstract

On the basis of 20 years of research in Northeast Russia, issues concerning the validity, ecology, and zoogeography of N. tumidus van Cleave et Bangham, 1949 are discussed. This paper presents data on the infection of arctic chars of the genus Salvelinus by acanthocephalans in several mountain lakes of this region. Finds of N. tumidus in whitefish (Coregonidae) from lakes of other mountain regions of Southern and Western Siberia are described. Paleogeographic reconstructions of vast lake basins in Siberia are considered. These hypotheses give an idea of probable habitats of ancestral forms of salmonid fish which currently serve as obligatory definitive hosts of N. tumidus in their Asian range. Based on the available data on the ways of formation of isolated populations of arctic char and whitefish in continental mountain areas, it is suggested that the modern range of the acanthocephalan N. tumidus is related to the distribution of such fish populations in North Asia.

Keywords:

Acanthocephala, Neoechinorhynchus tumidus, arctic chars, coregonid fish, mountain lakes, Siberia, Northeast Russia.