Torix (annelid)

This article is about the leech genus. For the Canadian stock exchange, see TORIX.

Torix
Torix cotylifer, the scale bar is equal to 1 millimetre (0.039 in)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Annelida
Clade:	Pleistoannelida
Clade:	Sedentaria
Class:	Clitellata
Subclass:	Hirudinea
Order:	Rhynchobdellida
Family:	Glossiphoniidae
Genus:	Torix Blanchard, 1893
Type species
Torix mirus Blanchard, 1893
Species
See text
Synonyms
OligoclepsisOka, 1935

Torix is a genus of Rhynchobdellid leeches in the family Glossiphoniidae, found in Eastern Asia and Japan. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]} Rana japonica, the Japanese brown frog, is the main host of T. tagoi. ^[8]

Rickettsia bacterial infection

Two members of the genus, T. tagoi and T. tukubana, show high percentages of Rickettsia infection in the wild; 96% and 83% respectively, according to a 2003 study. ^[8] Eggs of T. tagoi were found to all contain the bacteria, indicating the bacteria is almost always passed on to the next generation (vertical transmission). ^[8] It was found that infected leeches grew far larger than those uninfected with the bacteria. ^[8] Another paper concluded that the Rickettsia that acted as endosymbionts in the leeches represented a separate clade of Rickettsia, named the torix clade. ^{[9] [10]} As T. tagoi feeds on the blood of amphibians such as frogs and newts, it is possible that those amphibians were the route of horizontal transmission. ^[9]

Species

Photo of a leech, probably a member of the genus Torix, on a frog of the Rana genus uploaded from iNaturalist.

The number of species the genus contains is somewhat disputed between taxonomic databases and scientific papers.

• Torix cotylifer Blanchard, 1898 ^{[11] [12]}
• Torix mirus Blanchard, 1893 ^{[11] [12]}
• Torix novazealandiae (Dendy & Olliver, 1900) ^[11]
• Torix orientalis (Oka, 1925) ^{[11] [12]}
• Torix tagoi (Oka, 1925) ^{[11] [12]}
• Torix tukubana (Oka, 1935) ^{[11] [12]}

Torix baicalensis was moved to the genus Glossiphonia. ^[12]

References

1. "Genus Torix". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
2. "ADW: Torix: CLASSIFICATION". animaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
3. Zicha, Ondrej. "BioLib: Biological library". www.biolib.cz. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
4. taxonomy. "Taxonomy browser (Torix)". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
5. "Torix Blanchard, 1893". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
6. "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Torix Blanchard, 1893". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
7. "NZOR Name Details - Torix". www.nzor.org.nz. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
8. Kikuchi; Fukatsu (30 June 2003). "Rickettsia Infection in Natural Leech Populations". Microbial Ecology. 49 (2): 265–271. doi:10.1007/s00248-004-0140-5. PMID   15965725. S2CID   9375808 – via ResearchGate.
9. Kikuchi, Yoshitomo; Sameshima, Shinya; Kitade, Osamu; Kojima, Junichi; Fukatsu, Takema (Feb 2002). "Novel Clade of Rickettsia spp. from Leeches". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 68 (2): 999–1004. doi:10.1128/AEM.68.2.999-1004.2002. ISSN   0099-2240. PMC   126704 . PMID   11823253.
10. taxonomy. "Taxonomy browser (Rickettsia endosymbiont of Torix tukubana)". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
11. Sasaki, Akio (2015). "First Record of Torix tagoi（Oka, 1925）in Yamanashi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture" (PDF). Natural History of the Tokai District (in Japanese) (8): 5–8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 Oct 2022. [This genus has 7 species (T. mirus Blanchard，1893- T. baicalensis Schegolev, 1922- T. cotylifer Blanchard, 1898- T. orientalis (Oka, 1925) ・ T. tagoi (Oka, 1925) - T. tukubana (Oka, 1935) ・ T. novazealandiae (Dendy and Olliver, 1925). (Sawyer, 1986).]
12. Kambayashi, Chiaki; Kurabayashi, Atsushi; Nakano, Takafumi (2020-08-11). "Topotype-based redescription of the leech Torix tukubana (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniiformes: Glossiphoniidae)". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 133 (1): 59. doi: 10.2988/20-00003 . ISSN   0006-324X.