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. 2020 May 18:933:1-14.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.933.49314. eCollection 2020.

A new species of buffalo leech in the genus Hirudinaria Whitman, 1886 (Arhynchobdellida, Hirudinidae) from Thailand

Ekgachai Jeratthitikul  1 , Putita Jiranuntskul  1 , Takafumi Nakano  2 , Chirasak Sutcharit  3 , Somsak Panha  3
Affiliations

A new species of buffalo leech in the genus Hirudinaria Whitman, 1886 (Arhynchobdellida, Hirudinidae) from Thailand

Ekgachai Jeratthitikul et al. Zookeys. .

Abstract

Hirudinaria manillensis (Lesson, 1842), commonly known as the buffalo leech, shows a polymorphism of two ventral colorations. The green color morph has a plain green ventral surface and the red color morph has a brick-red ventral surface with two black submarginal stripes. Based on molecular and morphological evidence in the present study, these two color morphs were revealed as two different species. The red color morph fits well with the description of H. manillensis, while the green color morph showed some distinctions, and therefore is described herein as Hirudinaria thailandica Jeratthitikul & Panha, sp. nov. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by the dark greenish or dark olive ventral surface and a round atrium with ventral insertion of ejaculatory ducts in the male reproductive organ. A phylogenetic tree based on concatenated data of COI and 28S genes supported the new species and further indicated it as a sister species to H. bpling Phillips, 2012.

Keywords: Hirudinea; Hirudinaria manillensis; Thailand; molecular phylogeny; new species; taxonomy.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Live specimens of Hirudinaria species A dorsal and B ventral views of H. manillensis from Sakon Nakhon Province C dorsal and D ventral views of H. bpling from Satun Province E dorsal and F ventral views of H. thailandica sp. nov. MUMNH-HIR008-28 (holotype) from Chai Nat Province. Scale bar: 10 mm.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
External morphology of the holotype of Hirudinaria thailandica sp. nov. in preserved state A dorsal and B ventral views of the whole body C dorsal views of somites XIX–XXIII D ventral views of somites X–XV E dorsal and F ventral views of somites I–VIII G dorsal and H ventral views of somites XXIV–XXVII and caudal sucker. Abbreviations: an, anus; fg, female gonopore; mg, male gonopore; np, nephridiopores; and ss, sensillae. Scale bar: 10 mm (A, B), 5 mm (C–H).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Illustration of reproductive system of the holotype of Hirudinaria thailandica sp. nov. A dorsal view of male and female reproductive organs including positions of ganglia XII and XIII of the ventral nervous system. Lateral views of B male and C female reproductive organs. Scale bar: 2 mm. Abbreviations: atr, male atrium; cod, common oviduct; ej, ejaculatory bulb; ep, epididymis; fg, female gonopore; mg, male gonopore; ov, ovary; ps, penis sheath; ts, testisac. vas, vas deferens; vc, vaginal caecum; and vg, vagina.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Phylogenetic analysis of Hirudinaria species and related taxa A bayesian inference tree based on 2533 bp alignment dataset of nuclear 28S rRNA and mitochondrial COI genes. Numbers at nodes indicate bootstrap values from maximum likelihood (ML) and bpp from Bayesian inference analysis (BI). Nodes with black circles are sufficiently supported by both BI and ML, while nodes with grey circles are supported only by MLB map showing the sampling locations for the specimens used for DNA sequence analysis.
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