Recenti ricerche sulle forme « appaiate » di Lamprede dell'Italia e del Danubio

Summary

The author discusses his research on the lampreys of the Danube and mid and southern Italy. His results indicate that P. marinus lives in all Italian waters, while L. zanandreai lives only in the northern Italian plain. L. fluviatilis and L. planeri, the two forms of paired lampreys of Italy, arc caught in the basins of the Tiber, Garigliano, Volturno, Sarno, Tusciano and Sele rivers.

Paired lampreys may also be found in the Danubian waters. The parasitic lamprey is E. danfordi already known (Regan 1911), while the non-parasitic form is a new systematic entity, which the author calls E. danfordi vladyhovi.

The paired lampreys live in the same basins, both in Italy and in the Danube, but the parasitic forms inhabit the lower regions of the basins whereas the nonparasitic dwell in the upper.

The author remarks that there is a cline in L. fluviatilis of European waters, while in L. planeri, as in L. zanandreai, a variability exists between different streams and brooks, in relation to the feeding possibilities of ammocoetes and the annual water temperature variation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

I. S. Giuseppe Zanandrea

diretto dal Prof. U. D'Ancona