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.
Highlights
“Buffalo leech” is a common name of obligatory blood-feeding ectoparasitic leeches in the genus Hirudinaria Whitman, 1886 and Poecilobdella Blanchard, 1893
Several authors have noted that H. manillensis showed a color polymorphism containing two color morphs: a green color morph with darkish green on the dorsal surface and paler green on the ventral surface, and a red color morph with dark reddish brown on the dorsal surface and paler brick-red with two black submarginal stripes on the ventral surface (Moore 1927; Sawyer et al 1998)
In Thailand, the first scientific report of buffalo leeches was that of Baird (1869), which introduced a new name, Hirudo maculata Baird, 1869, based on materials collected from Siam ( Thailand)
Summary
“Buffalo leech” is a common name of obligatory blood-feeding ectoparasitic leeches in the genus Hirudinaria Whitman, 1886 and Poecilobdella Blanchard, 1893. Studied freshwater leeches in the southern part of Thailand and described H. bpling based on specimens collected from Phang Nga Province. (2014) studied freshwater leeches collected from northeastern Thailand by investigating their morphology, COI sequences and karyotypes These authors suggested the possibility of a new species being present in their material based on the differentiation of chromosome numbers, the genetic divergence for these leeches was relatively low. Specimens of all valid species of the genus Hirudinaria, including the red and green color morphs of H. manillensis (Fig. 1), were acquired and examined for morphological and genetic characteristics.
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