Erpobdella is a genus of leeches in the familyErpobdellidae. Members of the genus have three or four pairs of eyes, but never have true jaws, and are typically 20–50 millimetres (0.8–2.0 in) long. All members do not feed on blood, but instead are predators of small aquatic invertebrates, which they often swallow whole.[2][3]
Species
The genus includes species previously classified under the genera Croatobranchus, Mooreobdella, Trocheta and Nephelopsis. These were synonymized into Erpobdella by Sidall (2002) after morphogenetic analysis. There are over 30 currently accepted species:[1][4][5][6][7][8][9]
^E. Lukin (1976). Leeches of fresh and brackish water reservoirs [Пиявки пресных и солоноватых водоёмов]. Nauka. pp. 1–484.
^Douglas Grant Smith (2001). "Annelida". Pennak's freshwater invertebrates of the United States: Porifera to Crustacea (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 269–313. ISBN978-0-471-35837-4.
^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.
^Cichocka JM; Bielecki A; Kur J; Pikuła D; Kilikowska A; Biernacka B (2015). "A new leech species (Hirudinida: Erpobdellidae: Erpobdella) from a cave in the West Azerbaijan province of Iran". Zootaxa. 4013 (3): 413–427. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4013.3.5. PMID26623905.
^Nesemann, Hasko; Sharma, Subodh; et al. (2007), Aquatic Invertebrates of the Ganga River System (Mollusca, Annelida, Crustacea [in part]), vol. 1, pp. 1–263