BOTTARI, Teresa, PROFETA, Adriana, RINELLI, Paola, GAGLIO, Gabriella, LA SPADA, Gina, SMEDILE, Francesco, and GIORDANO, Daniela
This paper provides the first report of the leech, Pontobdella muricata (Linnaeus, 1758), in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The leech was found on the brown ray, Raja miraletus (Linnaeus 1758), and on the spotted ray, Raja montagui (Fowler, 1910), caught by trawling during autumn 2014. Complete sequence of 18S rRNA gene, COI mitochondrial gene and partial sequences of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene corroborate the determination based on morphological characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]