Pontobdella muricata | |
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P. muricata on a thornback ray | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Annelida |
Clade: | Pleistoannelida |
Clade: | Sedentaria |
Class: | Clitellata |
Subclass: | Hirudinea |
Order: | Rhynchobdellida |
Family: | Piscicolidae |
Genus: | Pontobdella |
Species: | P. muricata |
Binomial name | |
Pontobdella muricata (Linnaeus, 1758) | |
Synonyms [1] | |
Hirudo muricata Linnaeus, 1758 |
Pontobdella muricata is a species of marine leech in the family Piscicolidae. [1] It is a parasite of fishes and is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Pontobdella muricata is a long, cylindrical, somewhat flattened leech, narrowing at both ends. It has a number of annulations, which do not correspond to its internal segmentation, and is one of the largest sea leeches, with a length up to 10 cm (4 in) long when at rest, and double that length when stretched. [2] The anterior end has a sucker with which it feeds, and the posterior end bears another sucker with which it adheres to its host. The skin is rough and covered with small warts; the colour varies, juveniles are usually black or dark green with small speckles, while adults are pale grey, tan, or olive-green. [2]
Native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the species ranges from the Arctic, the Baltic Sea, and the North Sea, to the Mediterranean Sea. It has also been reported from the United States, Canada, Namibia, and Pakistan, but some of these records may be due to misidentification. It is found on the seabed at depths down to about 100 m (330 ft) and attached to large demersal fish. [2]
This leech is an external parasite of cartilagenous fishes such as the marbled electric ray (Torpedo marmorata), the common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca), and the thornback ray (Raja clavata), and less often of ray-finned fish such as the European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), the black scorpionfish (Scorpaena porcus), and the red scorpionfish (S. scrofa). It is found attached to the gills, the abdomen, and the bases of the fins of the host, where it feeds by sucking blood. [2] [3] It is quiescent during the day, holding itself motionless and partially coiled, attached by its posterior sucker, but becomes active at night, when it feeds. It can separate from its host and swim by flattening its body. It is the intermediate host for the protozoan Trypanosoma raiae , which it carries in its gut and transmits to rays. [2]
Like all leeches, P. muricata is a hermaphrodite, and fertilisation is internal. The eggs pass through the clitellum, where each is enclosed in a spherical cocoon. These are attached to empty bivalve or gastropod shells on the seabed and are pale at first, but darken with age. They are often irregularly grouped together, each with a slender, twisted stalk connecting it to a spreading, membranous holdfast. [2] The sphere is filled with a thick, gelatinous material with the developing embryo spirally coiled within. When it is nearly 2.5 cm (1 in) long and ready to hatch, a pair of small, rounded protuberances at the side of the sphere fall off, allowing the juvenile leech to emerge, [4] and search for a suitable host fish. [5]
Merlangius merlangus, commonly known as whiting or merling, is an important food fish in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean and the northern Mediterranean, western Baltic, and Black Sea. In Anglophonic countries outside the Whiting's natural range, the name "whiting" has been applied to various other species of fish.
The European sprat, also known as brisling, brisling sardine, bristling, garvie, garvock, Russian sardine, russlet, skipper or whitebait, is a species of small marine fish in the herring family Clupeidae. Found in European, West Asian and North African waters, it has silver grey scales and white-grey flesh. Specific seas in which the species occurs include the Irish Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea and Sea of the Hebrides. The fish is the subject of fisheries, particularly in Scandinavia, and is made into fish meal, as well as being used for human consumption. When used for food it can be canned, salted, breaded, fried, boiled, grilled, baked, deep fried, marinated, broiled, and smoked.
The spearfish remora is a species of remora with a worldwide distribution in tropical and subtropical seas. Remoras attach themselves to other fish with a sucker on the head and this fish is almost exclusively found living on billfishes or swordfishes, and sometimes on sharks.
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The thornback ray, or thornback skate, is a species of ray fish in the family Rajidae.
The red porgy, also known as the common seabream or Couch's bream, is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Sparidae. It is found in shallow waters on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, being present on the western coast of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea as well as the eastern coasts of North and South America and the Caribbean Sea. It feeds on or near the seabed and most individuals start life as females and later change sex to males.
The European flounder is a flatfish of European coastal waters from the White Sea in the north to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in the south. It has been introduced into the United States and Canada accidentally through transport in ballast water. It is caught and used for human consumption.
The common dragonet is a species of dragonet which is widely distributed in the eastern North Atlantic where it is common near Europe from Norway and Iceland southwards. It is a demersal species that occurs over sand bottoms. It lives to a maximum age of around seven years. It is caught in bycatch by fisheries and is used in the aquarium trade.
Aega psora is a species of isopod crustacean that parasitises a number of fish species in the North Atlantic. It is a serious ectoparasite of larger species of fish, particularly when they are injured.
Scorpaena scrofa, the red scorpionfish, bigscale scorpionfish, large-scaled scorpion fish, or rascasse is a venomous marine species of ray-finned fish in the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes. It is found in the Mediterranean Sea, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the western Indian Ocean.
The black scorpionfish, also known as the European scorpionfish or small-scaled scorpionfish, is a venomous scorpionfish, common in marine subtropical waters. It is widespread in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean from the British Isles to the Azores and Canary Islands, near the coasts of Morocco, in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
Liparis liparis, the common seasnail, striped seasnail or seasnail, is a small species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Liparidae, the snailfishes, in the order Scorpaeniformes, the scorpionfishes and flatheads. It is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean where it lives on the seabed.
Menticirrhus americanus, the southern kingfish, southern kingcroaker, king whiting, Carolina whiting, sea mullet, roundhead, or whiting, is a species of marine fish in the family Sciaenidae. It lives in shallow coastal waters on the western fringes of the Atlantic Ocean.
Haemopis sanguisuga is a species of freshwater leech in the family Haemopidae. It is commonly called the horse-leech, but that is due to the similarity of its appearance to the leech Limnatis nilotica, which sometimes enters the nasal cavities of livestock. Haemopis sanguisuga does not behave in this way. Another synonym for this leech is Aulastomum gulo.
Sepia elegans, the elegant cuttlefish, is a species of cuttlefish in the family Sepiidae from the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It is an important species for fisheries in some parts of the Mediterranean where its population may have suffered from overfishing.
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.
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.
Pseudaxine trachuri is a species of monogenean, parasitic on the gills of a marine fish. It belongs to the family Gastrocotylidae.
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