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Helobdella blinni sp. n. (Hirudinida, Glossiphoniidae) a new species inhabiting Montezuma Well, Arizona, USA
- Source :
- ZooKeys, ZooKeys, Vol 661, Iss, Pp 137-155 (2017), ZooKeys 661: 137-155
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Pensoft Publishers, 2017.
-
Abstract
- A new leech species Helobdella blinni sp. n., is described from Montezuma Well, an isolated travertine spring mound located in central Arizona, USA. In its native habitat, Helobdella blinni had been previously identified as Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), which was later reclassified to Helobdella modesta (Verrill, 1872). Similar to the European Helobdella stagnalis and North American Helobdella modesta, Helobdella blinni has six pairs of testisacs, five pairs of smooth crop caecae, one lobed pair of posteriorly-directed crop caecae, one pair of eyes, a nuchal scute, and diffuse salivary glands. However, the pigmentation of this new species ranges from light to dark brown, unlike Helobdella modesta which tends to be light grey in color. Also, Helobdella modesta produces a clutch of 12-–35 pink eggs, whereas Helobdella blinni produces smaller clutches of white eggs (7–14, 0.5 ± 0.15 mm, N = 7) and consequently broods fewer young (1–14, 7 ± 3.3 mm, N = 97). Helobdella blinni are also able to breed year-round due to the constant warm water conditions in Montezuma Well. Their breeding season is not restricted by seasonal temperatures. These species are morphologically similar, however, comparing the COI mtDNA sequences of Helobdella blinni with sequences from nearby populations of Helobdella modesta and other Helobdella species from GenBank indicate that Helobdella blinni is genetically distinct from these other Helobdella populations.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Rhynchobdellida
Helobdella modesta
food.ingredient
HelobdellaAnimalia
Clitellata
Annelida
Zoology
Helobdella blinni sp. n
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
food
lcsh:Zoology
Seasonal breeder
Animalia
lcsh:QL1-991
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
new species
biology
Leech
Helobdella
Glossiphoniidae
biology.organism_classification
Montezuma Well
030104 developmental biology
Helobdella stagnalis
Warm water
Animal Science and Zoology
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13132970 and 13132989
- Issue :
- 661
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- ZooKeys
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f8146c86566bee670951c00c6b979a7f