| Barbronia weberi | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Annelida |
| Class: | Clitellata |
| Order: | Arhynchobdellida |
| Family: | Salifidae |
| Genus: | Barbronia |
| Species: | B. weberi |
| Binomial name | |
| Barbronia weberi (R. Blanchard, 1897) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Barbronia weberi is a species of predatory freshwater leech in the family Salifidae. It is native to southeastern Asia but has spread to other parts of the world, including Australia, South America, southern Europe and the United States.
Barbronia weberi grows to a body length of about 2.5 to 3 cm (1.0 to 1.2 in), with individuals becoming sexually mature from a length of about 1.4 cm (0.6 in). The body is about 1.9 mm (0.07 in) wide and the rear suction cup has a diameter of approximately 1.5 mm (0.06 in). The body surface is covered with tiny papillae and is a uniform red to dark reddish-brown colour, sometimes almost black. There are always three pairs of eyespots on the head. The segments are not externally recognizable, and the seventeen body segments each comprise five outer annulations. In the pharynx, there are one or two retractile stylets on each of the three jaws. Between the male and female sex opening of the hermaphrodite animals there are five or fewer annulations. On the ventral surface, there is a central accessory copulation pore next to the gonopores, but this is absent in young animals. [1]
The species is native to India, southeastern Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia. From here it has spread to Australia, Europe and South America. It is a freshwater species. [2] In 2018 it was reported from two widely separated locations in North Carolina, but it is unclear whether these are as a result of two different introductions, or mean that the leech has become widely distributed but has previously been overlooked. [3]
As is the case with all leeches, B. weberi is a hermaphrodite; sperm is passed from one individual to another by traumatic insemination. The eggs are fertilised and a cocoon is secreted by the clitellum and receives the from one to five eggs as it passes over the female gonopore. [4] The eggs hatch in about one month and the juvenile leeches that emerge become mature in about four months. The adult can produce weekly cocoons for about three months before becoming senescent. [5] Adults are often found attached to water plants, and the cocoons containing eggs are attached to rocks, submerged objects or aquatic vegetation at the base of leaf whorls; it seems likely that the transport of aquatic plants by the aquarium trade is the means by which the leech has dispersed to new locations. [2] This leech can be successfully reared egg to egg in the laboratory, and may be of use as a model organism in developmental studies. [3]
Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column, derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata. Familiar examples of invertebrates include arthropods, mollusks, annelid, and cnidarians.
The gastrotrichs, commonly referred to as hairybellies or hairybacks, are a group of microscopic (0.06-3.0 mm), worm-like, pseudocoelomate animals, and are widely distributed and abundant in freshwater and marine environments. They are mostly benthic and live within the periphyton, the layer of tiny organisms and detritus that is found on the seabed and the beds of other water bodies. The majority live on and between particles of sediment or on other submerged surfaces, but a few species are terrestrial and live on land in the film of water surrounding grains of soil. Gastrotrichs are divided into two orders, the Macrodasyida which are marine, and the Chaetonotida, some of which are marine and some freshwater. Nearly 800 species of gastrotrich have been described.
Entoprocta, whose name means "anus inside", or Kamptozoa, is a phylum of mostly sessile aquatic animals, ranging from 0.1 to 7 millimetres long. Mature individuals are goblet-shaped, on relatively long stalks. They have a "crown" of solid tentacles whose cilia generate water currents that draw food particles towards the mouth, and both the mouth and anus lie inside the "crown". The superficially similar Bryozoa (Ectoprocta) have the anus outside a "crown" of hollow tentacles. Most families of entoprocts are colonial, and all but 2 of the 150 species are marine. A few solitary species can move slowly.
Oligochaeta is a subclass of animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadrile earthworms, and freshwater or semiterrestrial microdrile forms, including the tubificids, pot worms and ice worms (Enchytraeidae), blackworms (Lumbriculidae) and several interstitial marine worms.
The Turbellaria are one of the traditional sub-divisions of the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms), and include all the sub-groups that are not exclusively parasitic. There are about 4,500 species, which range from 1 mm (0.039 in) to large freshwater forms more than 500 mm (20 in) long or terrestrial species like Bipalium kewense which can reach 600 mm (24 in) in length. All the larger forms are flat with ribbon-like or leaf-like shapes, since their lack of respiratory and circulatory systems means that they have to rely on diffusion for internal transport of metabolites. However, many of the smaller forms are round in cross section. Most are predators, and all live in water or in moist terrestrial environments. Most forms reproduce sexually and with few exceptions all are simultaneous hermaphrodites.
Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax.
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.
Erpobdella obscura is a freshwater ribbon leech common in North America. It is a relatively large leech and is commonly used as bait by anglers for walleye and other sport fish. In Minnesota, live bait dealers annually harvest over 45,000 kg of bait-leeches, raising concerns of over-harvest.
The Asian swamp eel, swamp eel, rice eel, or white ricefield eel is a commercially important, air-breathing species of fish in the family Synbranchidae. Originating in the waters of East and Southeast Asia, it has been identified as an invasive species in the North American Everglades.
Glossiphoniidae are the family called freshwater jawless leeches or glossiphoniids. They are one of the main groups of Rhynchobdellida, true leeches with a proboscis. These leeches are generally flattened, and have a poorly defined anterior sucker. Most suck the blood of freshwater vertebrates like amphibians and aquatic turtles, but some feed on the hemolymph of invertebrates like oligochaetes and freshwater snails instead.
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 ring markings 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 reproductive system of gastropods varies greatly from one group to another within this very large and diverse taxonomic class of animals. Their reproductive strategies also vary greatly, see Mating of gastropods.
Motobdella montezuma is a species of leech which is only found in Montezuma Well, central Arizona, United States. It is a nocturnal pelagic predator that feeds almost exclusively on the endemic amphipod Hyalella montezuma, which it detects using passive sonar and swallows whole.
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.
Branchiobdellida is an order of freshwater leech-like clitellates that are obligate ectosymbionts or ectoparasites, mostly of astacoidean crayfish. They are found in the Northern Hemisphere and have a holarctic distribution in East Asia, the Euro-Mediterranean region and North and Central America, with the greatest species diversity being in North and Central America.
The annelids, also known as the ringed worms or segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecologies – some in marine environments as distinct as tidal zones and hydrothermal vents, others in fresh water, and yet others in moist terrestrial environments.
Hirudo orientalis is a species of medicinal leech. It has confused with Hirudo medicinalis, but has recently been recognized as different species. This Asian species is associated with mountainous areas in the subboreal eremial zone and occurs in Azerbaijan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It occurs also in Georgia, and probably in Armenia.
Erpobdella punctata is a leech in the family Erpobdellidae. It is found in freshwater streams and ponds in many parts of North America.
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.
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.
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