Epimeriidae is a family of relatively large amphipods found in cold oceans around the world.
The Clitellata are a class of annelid worms, characterized by having a clitellum - the 'collar' that forms a reproductive cocoon during part of their life cycles. The clitellates comprise around 8,000 species. Unlike the class of Polychaeta, they do not have parapodia and their heads are less developed.
The Valvatida are an order of starfish in the class Asteroidea, which contains 695 species in 172 genera in 17 families.
Turbonillinae is a subfamily of mostly minute parasitic sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.
Corallimorpharia is an order of marine cnidarians closely related to stony or reef building corals (Scleractinia). They occur in both temperate and tropical climates, although they are mostly tropical. Temperate forms tend to be very robust, with wide and long columns, whereas tropical forms tend to have very short columns with a wide oral disc and very short tentacles. The tentacles are usually arranged in rows radiating from the mouth. Many species occur together in large groups, although there are recorded instances of individuals. In many respects, they resemble the stony corals, except for the absence of a stony skeleton. Morphological and molecular evidence suggests that they are very closely related to stony corals.
Euhirudinea, the true leeches, are an infraclass of the Hirudinea. These clitellate annelids are of somewhat unclear relationships; namely the relationships of Hirudinea with oligochaetes are in need of revision. It may be that the presumed sister taxon of the Euhirudinea, the Acanthobdellidea, turns out to be more distantly related, as was already the case with the Branchiobdellida. Thus, eventually Euhirudinea might become a junior synonym of Hirudinea.
Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having external annulations that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels.
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms.
Turtle leeches are a genus, Ozobranchus, of leeches (Hirudinea) that feed exclusively on the blood of turtles. Only two species – Ozobranchus margoi and Ozobranchus branchiatus – are found in the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. Little is known about these leeches due to difficulties in studying their sea turtle hosts.
Dendrochirotacea is a sub-class of sea cucumber.
Erpobdella punctata is a leech in the family Erpobdellidae. It is found in freshwater streams and ponds in many parts of North America.
Bispira is a genus of marine bristleworm in the family Sabellidae. Its members were initially included in genus Sabella by Grube in 1851. In 1856, Krøyer described Bispira as a separate genus. Members of Bispira are defined by spirally-coiled, equally-divided branchial lobes.
Hemibdella soleae is a marine species of leech in the family Piscicolidae and the type taxon of its genus. Found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, it is a parasite of flatfish such as the common sole.
The Piscicolidae are a family of jawless leeches in the order Rhynchobdellida that are parasitic on fish. They occur in both freshwater and seawater, have cylindrical bodies, and typically have a large, bell-shaped, anterior sucker with which they cling to their host. Some of the leeches in this family have external gills, outgrowths of the body wall projecting laterally, the only group of leeches to exchange gases in this way.
Acanthobdella peledina is a species of leech in the infraclass Acanthobdellidea. It feeds on the skin and blood of freshwater fishes in the boreal regions of northern Europe, Asia and North America.
Ozobranchus branchiatus is a species of leech in the family Ozobranchidae. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean and is a permanent parasite of sea turtles, mostly the green sea turtle.
Piscicola geometra is a species of leech in the family Piscicolidae. It is an external parasite of marine, brackish and freshwater fishes. It was first described as Hirudo geometra by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758.
Acanthobdella is a genus of leeches containing 2 species.
Pontobdella muricata is a species of marine leech in the family Piscicolidae. It is a parasite of fishes and is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
