Erpobdella is a genus of leeches in the family Erpobdellidae. Members of the genus have three or four pairs of eyes, but never have true jaws, and are typically 20–50 millimetres (0.8–2.0 in) long. All members do not feed on blood, but instead are predators of small aquatic invertebrates, which they often swallow whole.[2][3]

Erpobdella
Erpobdella octoculata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Clade: Pleistoannelida
Clade: Sedentaria
Class: Clitellata
Subclass: Hirudinea
Order: Arhynchobdellida
Family: Erpobdellidae
Genus: Erpobdella
Blainville, 1818
Type species
Erpobdella octoculata
Species

See text

Synonyms[1]
  • Croatobranchus Kerovec, Kučinić & Jalžic, 1999
  • Mooreobdella Pawlowski, 1955
  • Nephelopsis Verrill, 1872
  • Semiscolecides Augener, 1930
  • Trocheta Dutrochet, 1817

Species

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The genus includes species previously classified under the genera Croatobranchus, Mooreobdella, Trocheta and Nephelopsis. These were synonymized into Erpobdella by Sidall (2002) after morphogenetic analysis. There are over 30 currently accepted species:[1][4][5][6][7][8][9]

References

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  1. ^ a b Mark E. Siddall (2002). "Phylogeny of the leech family Erpobdellidae (Hirudinida : Oligochaeta)" (PDF). Invertebrate Systematics. 16: 1–6. doi:10.1071/IT01011.
  2. ^ E. Lukin (1976). Leeches of fresh and brackish water reservoirs [Пиявки пресных и солоноватых водоёмов]. Nauka. pp. 1–484.
  3. ^ Douglas Grant Smith (2001). "Annelida". Pennak's freshwater invertebrates of the United States: Porifera to Crustacea (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 269–313. ISBN 978-0-471-35837-4.
  4. ^ S. Trajanovski; C. Albrecht; K. Schreiber; R. Schultheiß; T. Stadler; M. Benke & T. Wilke (2010). "Testing the spatial and temporal framework of speciation in an ancient lake species flock: the leech genus Dina (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae) in Lake Ohrid". Biogeosciences. 7 (11): 3387–3402. Bibcode:2010BGeo....7.3387T. doi:10.5194/bg-7-3387-2010. hdl:20.500.11850/29517.
  5. ^ Serge Utevsky; Pavel Dubov & Alexander Prokin (2015). "First Russian record of Erpobdella monostriata: DNA barcoding and geographical distribution" (PDF). Spixiana. 38: 161–168.
  6. ^ U. Kutschera (2004). "Description of a new leech species, Erpobdella wuttkei nov. sp. (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae)" (PDF). Lauterbornia. 52: 147–151.
  7. ^ Fredric R Govedich; Dean W Blinn; Paul Keim; Ronald W Davies (1998). "Phylogenetic relationships of three genera of Erpobdellidae (Hirudinoidea), with a description of a new genus, Motobdella, and species, Motobdella sedonensis". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 76 (12): 2164–2171. doi:10.1139/z98-132.
  8. ^ Cichocka JM; Bielecki A; Kur J; Pikuła D; Kilikowska A; Biernacka B (2015). "A new leech species (Hirudinida: Erpobdellidae: Erpobdella) from a cave in the West Azerbaijan province of Iran". Zootaxa. 4013 (3): 413–427. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4013.3.5. PMID 26623905.
  9. ^ Nesemann, Hasko; Sharma, Subodh; et al. (2007), Aquatic Invertebrates of the Ganga River System (Mollusca, Annelida, Crustacea [in part]), vol. 1, pp. 1–263