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Published March 11, 2022 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Helobdella stagnalis

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto g. 10, 53361 Kaunas, Lithuania
  • 2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto g. 10, 53361 Kaunas, Lithuania & jurgita. rutkauskaite-suciliene @ vdu. lt; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 4712 - 1865

Description

Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758)

(Figures 3G–H–I)

Material examined: Raseika (Raseiniai) (Nr. 1) n=12, 9.viii.2019; Klibiai (Kretinga) (Nr. 7), n=15, 4.vii.2018; Grūšlaukė (Palanga) (Nr. 9), n=9, 5. vii. 2019; Tūbinė (Šilalė) (Nr. 10), n=10, 15.vii. 2018; Kirneilė (Molėtai) (Nr. 13), n=11, 4.viii.2018; Maišia (Garliava) (Nr. 15), n=12, vii–viii. 2019; Ronžė (Palanga) (Nr. 17), n=9, 2.viii.2018; Šventoji (Kretinga) (Nr. 20), n=10, 7.viii.2018; Ilgis (Ignalina) (Nr. 33), n=5, 21.viii.2018.

Diagnosis: Body flat, leaf–shape. 10 mm length, and 2–4 mm width. Body whitish with numerous tawny spots on dorsal surface. One pair of eyespots and a chitinous nuchal scute (Tiberti and Gentilli 2010, Ben Ahmed et al. 2015a) on dorsal surface in anterior region are clearly visible (Figs. 3G, H).

Habitat: Common leech in ponds and small slow flowing rivers. Specimens with developing cocoons and juveniles attached to the ventral surface were found from May to August (Fig. 3I). Juveniles were about 1 mm length in May, and their number on the adults varied from 1 to 12.

Distribution: Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), is one of the most widely distributed species of freshwater leeches, it has been reported from all continents except Australia (Platt et al. 1993; Ben Ahmed et al. 2015b) however it may represent a complex of multiples species (see Iwama et al 2019). Previously, this species was recorded in Curonian lagoon, Lithuania (Szidat 1926; Gasiūnas 1959; Zettler and Daunys 2007) and based on our results, (Table 1) it is clear that H. stagnalis is widespread throughout the country.

Notes

Published as part of Šatkauskienė, Ingrida & Rutkauskaitė-Sucilienė, Jurgita, 2022, The present state of the leech fauna (Annelida: Hirudinea) in Lithuania, pp. 47-62 in Zootaxa 5115 (1) on page 52, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5115.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/6346023

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Linked records

Additional details

Identifiers

URL
http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03EA87A0FF807443FF018CEAFBB0F9BA

Cites
Figure: 10.5281/zenodo.6346033 (DOI)
Dataset: http://table.plazi.org/id/DF3C663EFF847447FF018CB3FB94FBEC (URL)
Is part of
Journal article: 10.11646/zootaxa.5115.1.3 (DOI)
Journal article: http://zenodo.org/record/6346023 (URL)
Journal article: http://publication.plazi.org/id/FFD3FFD8FF857446FF968F44FF9EFF97 (URL)
Journal article: http://zoobank.org/87DEE6CD-8170-47B5-B570-47F5131DB25A (URL)
Is source of
https://biodiversitypmc.sibils.org/collections/plazi/03EA87A0FF807443FF018CEAFBB0F9BA (URL)
https://www.gbif.org/species/193941030 (URL)
https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/20276/taxon/03EA87A0FF807443FF018CEAFBB0F9BA.taxon (URL)

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Linnaeus
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Annelida
Order
Rhynchobdellida
Family
Glossiphoniidae
Genus
Helobdella
Species
stagnalis
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) sec. Šatkauskienė & Rutkauskaitė-Sucilienė, 2022

References

  • Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Vol. 1. Laurentius Salvius, Holmiae, 824 pp.
  • Tiberti, R. & Gentilli, A. (2010) First report of freshwater leech Helobdella stagnalis (Rhyncobdellida: Glossiphoniidae) as a parasite of an anuran amphibian. Acta Herpetologica, 5 (2), 255 - 258. https: // doi. org / 10.13128 / Acta _ Herpetol- 9034
  • Ahmed, R. B., Romdhane, Y. & Tekaya, S. (2015 a) Checklist and Distribution of Marine and freshwater leeches (Annelida, Clitellata, Hirudinea) in Tunisia with identification key. Ecologica Montenegrina, 2 (1), 3 - 19. https: // doi. org / 10.37828 / em. 2015.2.1
  • Platt, T. R., Sever, D. M. & Gonzalez, V. L. (1993) First Report of the Predaceous Leech Helobdella stagnalis (Rhynchobdellida: Glossiphoniidae) as a Parasite of an Amphibian, Ambystoma tigrinum (Amphibia: Caudata). American Midland Naturalist, 129, 208 - 210. https: // doi. org / 10.2307 / 2426450
  • Ahmed, B. R., Gammoudi, M., Khaled, I., Tekaya, S., Mansour, L., Alwasel, S. & Harrath, A. H. (2015 b) Annotations on marine and freshwater leeches (Annelida, Clitellata, Hirudinea) from North Africa. Tropical Zoology, 28 (2), 71 - 93. https: // doi. org / 10.1080 / 03946975.2015.1046737
  • Iwama, R. E., Oceguera-Figueroa, A., de Carle, D., Manglicmot, C., Erseus, C., Morning-Song Miles, N., Siddall, M. E. & Kvist, S. (2019) Broad geographic sampling and DNA barcoding do not support the presence of Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Clitellata: Glossiphoniidae) in North America. Zootaxa, 4671 (1), 1 - 25. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / zootaxa. 4671.1.1
  • Szidat, L. (1926) Beitrage zur faunistik und Biologie des Kurischen Haffs. Schriften der Pysikalisch-okonomischen Gesellschaft zu Konigsber g, 65, 5 - 31.
  • Gasiunas, I. I. (1959) Fodder macrozoobenthos is a raw material of the Curonian Lagoon. Trudy Akademii nauk Litovskoy SSR, 1959, 191 - 291. [in Russian]
  • Zettler, M. L. & Daunys, D. (2007) Long-term macrozoobenthos changes in a shallow boreal lagoon: Comparison of recent biodiversity inventory with historical data. Limnologica, 37 (2), 170 - 185. https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / j. limno. 2006.12.004