ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Role of Gmelinoides fasciatus (Crustacea: Amphipoda) in Macrozoobenthos on the Littoral of Lake Onego During the Subglacial Period

Macrozoobenthos of the littoral of Lake Onego is represented by 22 units of different taxonomic rank. The invasive species Gmelinoides fasciatus (Stebbing 1899) (CRUSTACEA: AMPHIPODA) plays a dominant role by biomass in the littoral macrozoobenthos community during the subglacial period. The peculiarities of the size and sex composition of the G. fasciatus population are studied. It was shown for the first time that in the subglacial period on the littoral of Lake Onego the population of amphipods contains young individuals from 2.1 mm, in contrast to the size composition of this species in Lake Ladoga. Apparently, these are crustaceans that appeared in the summer of the previous year, as we did not discover any breeding females. The sexual structure of the G. fasciatus population in Lake Onego is stable, with the ratio of females to males being 1:1.