Effects of Parasite Infection and Host Body Size on Habitat Associations of Invasive Aquatic Snails: Implications for Environmental Monitoring

Abstract

The Comal River, a spring-fed system in central Texas, was invaded in the 1960s by two Asian aquatic snails (Thiaridae: red-rimmed melania Melanoides tuberculata and quilted melania Tarebia granifera) and subsequently by three of their trematode parasites (the avian eye-fluke Philophthalmus gralli in the 1960s; the gill trematode Centrocestus formosanus in the 1990s; and the intestinal fluke Haplorchis pumilio in the 2000s). Previous snail collections (2001-2002) established that habitat conditions significantly affect the distribution of both snail species. However, the effects of snail size (known to influence infection prevalence) and habitat conditions (known to influence snail size) on trematode infection patterns in this system were not evaluated. In a re-evaluation of this data set, logistic regression analyses with individual snails showed that for both M. tuberculata and T. granifera populations, large snails were more likely to be infected than small snails, and habitat conditions were significantly related to infection in T. granifera. However, only snail size was significant in explaining the probability of infection in M. tuberculata. This result was confirmed by linear regression models, which showed that both infected and noninfected M. tuberculata used similar habitats, as large individuals in both infection categories were found in patches dominated by fine substrates and high levels of aquatic vegetation and detritus. For the large size-class of T. granifera, noninfected individuals were found primarily in habitats with silt/sand substrates and high vegetation and detritus cover, while infected individuals occurred among all available habitats. Using these results, we suggest that targeted sampling of large individuals of M. tuberculata in habitats with high detritus and vegetation and large individuals of T. granifera in any habitat can be used to efficiently ascertain parasite "hot spots" and to evaluate changes in parasite prevalence or detect the invasion of new parasites in these thiarid snails.