Expansion of the Polychaete Laonome xeprovala Bick & Bastrop, in Bick et al., 2018, into Reservoirs of the Manych River Valley

Analysis of macrozoobenthos samples collected in the reservoirs of the Western Manych River valley during a complex expedition organized by the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2021, revealed two polychaete individuals from the genus Laonome. Probably, the polychaete Laonome xeprovala Bick & Bastrop, in Bick et al., 2018 invaded the Veselovskoye Reservoir via the cascade of waterways from the Don River. This is a new locality for this species within the invasive range of the genus on the territory of the Russian Federation. To date, since this polychaete has been revealed at only one sampling site, it is difficult to evaluate the level of naturalization of this species in the water bodies of the Western Manych valley.