Molecular Phylogenies of Leeches and Haemoparasites Infecting Freshwater Turtles in Aquatic Ecosystems of Northern Africa Suggest Phylogenetic Congruence between Sensu Lato and Sensu Lato.

Haemogregarines are blood parasites with a life-cycle involving a vertebrate as the intermediate host and an invertebrate as the definitive host and vector. Extensive phylogenetic investigations based on 18S-rRNA gene sequences have shown that (Apicomplexa: Haemogregarinidae) is able to infest a large diversity of freshwater turtle species, including the European pond turtle , the Sicilian pond turtle , the Caspian turtle , the Mediterranean pond turtle , and the Western Caspian turtle , among others. From the same molecular markers, is further considered to be a complex of cryptic species predisposed to infect the same host species.

Cytochrome c oxydase I phylogenetic analysis of Haemogregarina parasites (Apicomplexa, Coccidia, Eucoccidiorida, Haemogregarinidae) confirms the presence of three distinct species within the freshwater turtles of Tunisia.

Species of Haemogregarina are apicomplexan blood parasites that use vertebrates as intermediate hosts. Due to limited interspecific morphological characters within the genus during the last decade, 18S rRNA gene sequences were widely used for species identification. As coinfection patterns were recently reported from nuclear molecular data for two sympatric freshwater turtles Mauremys leprosa and Emys orbicularis from Tunisia, our objectives were to design COI specific primers to confirm the presence of three distinct species in both host species.

Description of a new Agraecina species from Tunisia (Araneae: Liocranidae), with a review of all species of the genus.

While Liocranidae is a family encompassing 283 species distributed in 32 genera (World Spider Catalog 2019), the genus Agraecina Simon, 1932 currently counts only six described species: Agraecina canariensis Wunderlich, 1992 from the Canaries, A. cristriani (Georgescu, 1989) from Romania, A. hodna Bosmans, 1999 from Algeria, A.

The genetic diversity of blood parasites within the freshwater turtles Mauremys leprosa and Emys orbicularis in Tunisia reveals coinfection with Haemogregarina spp.

Haemogregarina species are apicomplexan blood parasites infecting vertebrates such as fish, lizards, and turtles. Due to the high morphological similarity of the erythrocytic stages infecting host species, it has always been a challenge to identify the true diversity of these parasites. Therefore, taxonomic studies are presently based on the combination of morphological and molecular data.

Abundance and diversity of amphipods (Crustacea: Peracarida) on shallow algae and seagrass in lagoonal ecosystem of the Mediterranean Tunisian coast.

Background: Bizerte lagoon is a semi-enclosed marine ecosystem, where various types of human activities have been developed. To investigate the distribution and temporal variation of amphipod assemblage, monthly sampling was conducted at the Menzel Jemil site from October 2009 to September 2010.

Results: Atotal number of 3,620 specimens were collected from floating algae and seagrass allowing the identification of 10 amphipod species.

[Phenetic analysis of populations of Porcellionides pruinosus (Brandt, 1833) (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea)].

The cosmopolitan species, Porcellionides pruinosus (Brandt, 1833), exhibited a geographical variation of its morphological features and its reproduction pattern. In fact, some Tunisian populations had a seasonal reproductive period and other ones showed a reproductive activity. A phenetic analysis has been performed to compare populations belonging to P.

[Biology and population dynamics of Porcellionides sexfasciatus (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea)].

The biology and the population dynamics of Porcellionides sexfasciatus Budde-Lund (1879) were studied on a field and carried out at Garat Nâam (Kasserine, Tunisia) from July 1996 to June 1998. The reproduction exhibited a seasonal pattern extending from February/March to October/November. The juveniles appeared in the population from April to November.