Erpobdellidae Explained

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

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.^[1]

The family currently contains 3 genera Erpobdella, Dina, Trocheta and Motobdella.^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

The genus Mimobdella was also sometimes included within Erpobdellidae or Gastrostomobdellidae but is now accepted to be under the family Salifidae.^[6]

Notes and References

1. S. Trajanovski. C. Albrecht. K. Schreiber. R. Schultheiß. T. Stadler. M. Benke. T. Wilke. amp. 2010. Testing the spatial and temporal framework of speciation in an ancient lake species flock: the leech genus Dina (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae) in Lake Ohrid. Biogeosciences. 7. 11. 3387  - 3402. 10.5194/bg-7-3387-2010. free.
2. Mark E. Siddall. 2002. Phylogeny of the leech family Erpobdellidae (Hirudinida : Oligochaeta). Invertebrate Systematics. 16. 1 - 6. 10.1071/IT01011.
3. S. Trajanovski. C. Albrecht. K. Schreiber. R. Schultheiß. T. Stadler. M. Benke. T. Wilke. amp. 2010. Testing the spatial and temporal framework of speciation in an ancient lake species flock: the leech genus Dina (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae) in Lake Ohrid. Biogeosciences. 7. 11. 3387  - 3402. 10.5194/bg-7-3387-2010. free.
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. 10.1139/z98-132.
5. A. Khomenko. S. Utevsky. A. Utevsky. P. Trontelj. 2020. Unrecognized diversity of Trocheta species (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae): resolving a century-old taxonomic problem in Crimean leeches. Syst. Biodivers.. 18. 129 - 141. 10.1080/14772000.2020.1739776.
6. Takafumi Nakano. 2011. Holotype redescription of Mimobdella japonica (Hirudinida, Arhynchobdellida, Erpobdelliformes) and taxonomic status of the genus Mimobdella. ZooKeys. 119. 1 - 10. 10.3897/zookeys.119.1501. 21998513. 3192424 . free .