05_DeRios_06_2022.indd UDC UDC 592:595.384(835.32) INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATED TO PARASTACUS PUGNAX (DECAPODA, PARASTACIDAE) NORTHERN PATAGONIAN POPULATIONS (38° S, ARAUCANIA, CHILE): A FIRST EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS P. R. De los Rios-Escalante1,2,*, P. Jara-Seguel1,2, A. Contreras1, M. Latsague1, G. Lara1 1Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Químicas, Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Casilla 15-D, Temuco, Chile 2Núcleo de Estudios Ambientales UC Temuco *Corresponding author E-mail: prios@uct.cl urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3600C3D4-F7CF-40B9-82AF-A67843274C36 Invertebrate Communities Associated to Parastacus pugnax (Decapoda, Parastacidae) Northern Patagonian Populations (38° S, Araucania, Chile): a First Exploratory Analysis. De los Rios-Escalante, P. R., Jara-Seguel, P., Contreras, A., Latsague, M., Lara, G. — Th e burrowing crayfi sh Parastacus pugnax (Poeppig, 1835) inhabits the fl ooded plains in the central part of Chile (32–38° S), where it coexists with another representaives of invertebrate fauna. Th e aim of this study was to give the fi rst description based on exploratory data of invertebrates associated to P. pugnax habitats in the Araucanía region, Chile. For comparison, published data on two similar habitats without P. pugnax populations were considered as outgroups. Th e obtained results revealed marked diff erences in species composition among sites with presence of P. pugnax, and without this species. A small number of species (1–5) was identifi ed in the studied sites; Cladocera Simocephalus expinosus group was the most numerous and inhabited fi ve of seven sites. Ecological and biogeographical topics were discussed. K e y w o r d s : Parastacus pugnax, fl ooded plains, invertebrates communities, Simocephalus. Introduction Th e Chilean crayfi shes belongs to the Parastacidae family that contains the genera Parastacus, Samastacus and Virilastacus whose representatives inhabit between 32–46° S (Rudolph, 2013 a). One of them, Parastacus pugnax (Poeppig, 1835), is widespread in fl ooding plains called “vegas”, streaching between 32–38° S (Rudolph, 2013 a, b; Velásquez et al., 2022) and forest wetlands at 38° S (Correa-Araneda et al., 2021, 2017). Th is species is the most studied and important as it is used for food in rural communities between 34–38°S regardless of seasonal change (Rudolph, 2013 b; Ibarra & Arana, 2012, 2011). Th e habitats of P. pugnax are fl ood plains, where individuals excavate galleries as a shelter. During the rainy season (June–August), they come to the surface or to shallow zones, and aft er the end of the rainy season, in spring, summer and autumn, individuals are hidden in deep zones of their galleries (Rudolph, 2013 a, b). Th e associated communities of the habitats are poorly studied, with the exception of native forest wetlands at 38° S, where crustaceans such as amphipod Hyalella patagonica (Cunningham, 1871), isopod Heterias exul (Muel- ler 1892) and decapod Aegla araucaniensis (Jara, 1980) (Correa-Araneda et al., 2017) with high aquatic insect diversity (Correa-Araneda et al., 2021) were reported as associated fauna, which would be similar to the fi rst descriptions of fl ooded plains at the same latitude ( De los Rios Escalante et al., 2021). Zoodiversity, 56(6): 485–488, 2022 DOI 10.15407/zoo2022.06.485 486 P. R. De los Rios-Escalante, P. Jara-Seguel, A. Contreras, M. Latsague, G. Lara Nevertheless, no studies have been conducted on the fauna associated to the galleries, but based on reports for Virilastacus rucapihuelensis galleries at 40° S latitude, endemic amphipods could be found (Grosso & Peralta, 2009). Th e aim of this study was to conduct the fi rst preliminary investigation of invertebrate communities associated with P. pugnax habitats in the Araucania region, north of Chilean Patagonia (38° S). Material and methods Data from two sites Imperialito (38°48' S; 73°04' W) and Galvarino (38°24' S; 72°47' W) were collected in August 2022, during a rural community activity of P. pugnax extraction, called “crayfi sh festival”, where the individuals were collected from their galleries using manual plunger pumps (Rudolph, 2013 a, b). Water collected from these pumps was fi ltered (3 L) through a 100 m screen, this volume was chosen based on the size of the water sample taken from the hand plunger pumps and the volume of water associated to P. pugnax galleries (De los Ríos- Escalante et al., 2021). Th e collected material was fi xed with absolute ethanol, quantifi ed and identifi ed with literature descriptions (Dominguez & Fernández, 2009; Grosso & Peralta, 2009; González, 2003; Araya & Zúñiga, 1985). Also, data collected from fl ooded plains with P. pugnax described by De los Ríos- Escalante et al. (2021) was included for data set. Data analysis: an abundance matrix was built, uploaded using Python soft ware (Van Rossum & Drake, 2022), and the libraries Pandas (McKinney, 2022), NumPy (Harris et al., 2020), Matplotlib (Hunter, 2022) and Seaborn (Waskiiim, 2022) libraries, with the aim of apply exploratory analysis that explains the potential diff erences for studied groups involving statistical and programming techniques (VanderPlas, 2017). On this basis, cluster analysis was applied using Ward’s method, which is a non-supervisory analysis method, since the fi nal results of the order data set are based on the own data structure without the intervention of the researcher (VanderPlas, 2017; Geron, 2019). Th ese statistical data analysis techniques and programming techniques can be applied to a small amount of data, as described in the present study (VanderPlas, 2017). Results and discussion Th e results obtained revealed a small number of species at each site: there were fi ve species at the Galvarino 1 and Imperialito 2, and only one species was found at the Ranquilco site (table 1). Th e most frequent species was Simocephalus exspinosus (Koch, 1841) that was present in fi ve of seven studied sites. Th e Cluster analysis revealed the existence of one main group, that included as main similar sites to Imperialito 1 and Imperialito 2, that are similar to the pair joined by Nehuentue and Galvarino, that simultaneously are joined with site Ranquilco, and fi nally the most diff erent sites were Galvarino 2 and Pichinhual (fi g. 1). Th e exposed results revealed similarities in species composition to the fi rst reported sites in fl ooded plains with P. pugnax presence and absence (De los Ríos-Escalante et al., 2021), and forest wetlands (Correa-Araneda et al., 2021, 2017). Nevertheless, the presence of amphipod specially H. chiloensis and Rudolphia sp., have not been reported for P. pugnax habitats, and Fig 1. Cluster analysis for invertebrate communities reported for sites included in the present study. 487Invertebrate Communities Associated to Parastacus pugnax Northern Patagonian Populations… T ab le 1 . A ve ra ge a bu nd an ce (i nd /L ) i nv er te br at e sp ec ie s r ep or te d fo r si te s i nc lu de d in th e pr es en t s tu dy (n = 3 b y ea ch si te ) G al va ri no 1 G al va ri no 2 Im pe ri al ito 1 Im pe ri al ito 2 Pi ch in hu al R an qu ilc o N eh ue nt ue G eo gr ap hi ca l l oc at io n 38 °2 4´ S; 72 °4 7´ W 38 °2 4´ S; 72 °4 7´ W 38 °4 8´ S; 73 °0 4´ W 38 °4 8´ S; 73 °0 4´ W 38 °4 3´ S ; 73 °2 2´ W 38 °4 3´ S; 73 °0 3´ W 38 °4 5´ S ; 73 °2 5 ´ W Si m oc ep ha lu s e xp in os us (K oc h, 1 84 1) 0. 11 0. 00 0. 00 0. 11 3. 60 0. 00 0. 63 D ap hn ia sp . ( ju ve ni le ) 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 03 M es oc yc lo ps a ra uc an us L öffl e r, 19 62 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 97 0. 00 0. 00 C al an oi ds c op ep od ite s 4. 33 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 C yc lo po id s c op ep od ite s 0. 11 0. 00 0. 00 0. 11 3. 07 0. 00 0. 00 O st ra co da in de t 3. 00 0. 33 0. 00 1. 44 0. 00 0. 00 0. 83 N au pl iu s 0. 00 0. 33 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Ru do lp hi a sp 0. 00 0. 00 0. 11 0. 11 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 H ya le lla ch ilo en sis G on za le z & W at lin g 20 01 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 44 3. 83 0. 00 0. 00 D ip te ra 0. 22 0. 56 0. 00 0. 00 0. 33 0. 00 0. 00 C hi le po rt er sp 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 73 0. 00 A ca ri 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 03 0. 00 0. 00 So ur ce * * * * ** ** ** So u rc e: * pr es en t s tu dy ; * * D e lo s R ío s- Es ca la nt e et a l., 2 02 1. probably shows an important scenario on an ecological and biogeographical viewpoint. Th e presence of H. chiloensis in ground waters was reported from coastal water springs at 40° S, associated to the endemic amphipod Patagondidiella wefk oi (Perez-Schultheiss, 2013), from this point of view, the presence of H. chiloensis associated to ground waters in the present study would be an important ecological record. In according to the checklist of ground water crustaceans of De los Ríos et al. (2016), only the presence of Rudolphia sp., was mentioned there, nevertheless the presence of ostracods, and zooplanktonic cladocerans (including Simocephalus serrulatus) and copepods are similar with descriptions of De los Ríos-Escalante & Romero-Mieres (2020) for ground waters within Temuco town, at similar latitude to studied sites. According to the literature, cyclopoid copepods (Williams, 1993; Strayer & Reid, 1999; Reid et al., 2006; Brancelj & Dumont, 2007) and cladocerans have adaptations for groundwater colonization (Dumont & Negrea, 1996; Brancelj & Dumont, 2007). Th e exposed results denote new fi ndings, that confi rm the colonization of zooplanktonic cladocerans and copepods in ground waters and revealed more detailed data on invertebrate communities in comparison to the fi rst descriptions of De los Ríos-Escalante et al. (2021). However, more research is needed to understand patterns in community ecology. Th e present study was fi nanced by projects VIP-UCT 2020RE-PR-06 and MECESUP UCT 0804, also the authors express their gratitude to M.I. and S.M.A. for valuable comments on improving the manuscript. References Araya, J. M., Zúñiga L. R., 1985. Manual taxonómico del zooplancton lacustre de Chile. Boletin Limnológico, Universidad Austral de Chile, 8, 1–110. Brancelj, A., Dumont, H. J. 2007. A review of the diversity, adaptations and groundwater colonization pathways in Cladocera and Calanoida (Crustacea), two rare and contrasting groups of stygobionts. Fund. Appl. Limnol. Arch. Hydrobiol., 168, 3–17. 488 P. R. De los Rios-Escalante, P. 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