Erpobdellidae

Erpobdellidae is a family of leeches. It is one of the four families belonging to the suborder Erpobdelliformes of the proboscisless leeches order, Arhynchobdellida.[1]

Erpobdellidae
Erpobdella octoculata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Class: Clitellata
Order: Arhynchobdellida
Suborder: Erpobdelliformes
Family: Erpobdellidae
Blanchard, 1894
Genera

Their members have abandoned the blood feeding habits of their ancestors and are instead predators of aquatic invertebrates. The family previously contained seven genera, but Siddall (2002) synonymized five genera (Croatobranchus, Dina, Mooreobdella, Trocheta and Nephelopsis) into the genus Erpobdella based on morphogenetic analysis, with the remaining genus Motobdella possibly a sister group and thus retained. This decision was not accepted by scientific community.[2]

The family currently contains 3 genera Erpobdella, Dina and Motobdella.[1][2][3]

The genus Mimobdella was also sometimes included within Erpobdellidae or Gastrostomobdellidae but is now accepted to be under the family Salifidae.[4]

References
  1. Mark E. Siddall (2002). "Phylogeny of the leech family Erpobdellidae (Hirudinida : Oligochaeta)" (PDF). Invertebrate Systematics. 16: 1–6.
  2. S. Trajanovski; C. Albrecht; K. Schreiber; R. Schultheiß; T. Stadler; M. Benke & T. Wilke (2010). "Testing the spatial and temporal framework of speciation in an ancient lake species flock: the leech genus Dina (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae) in Lake Ohrid" (PDF). Biogeosciences. 7: 3387–3402. doi:10.5194/bg-7-3387-2010.
  3. Fredric R Govedich; Dean W Blinn; Paul Keim; Ronald W Davies (1998). "Phylogenetic relationships of three genera of Erpobdellidae (Hirudinoidea), with a description of a new genus, Motobdella, and species, Motobdella sedonensis". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 76 (12): 2164–2171. doi:10.1139/z98-132.
  4. Takafumi Nakano (2011). "Holotype redescription of Mimobdella japonica (Hirudinida, Arhynchobdellida, Erpobdelliformes) and taxonomic status of the genus Mimobdella" (PDF). ZooKeys. 119: 1–10. doi:10.3897/zookeys.119.1501. PMC 3192424. PMID 21998513.


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