Ceylon gel
| Ceylon gel | ||||||||||||
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Japanese mountain gel ( Haemadipsa zeylanica japonica ) when stretched out |
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| Haemadipsa zeylanica | ||||||||||||
| ( Moquin-Tandon , 1827) |
The Ceylon leech ( Haemadipsa zeylanica ) is a type of landing leech (Haemadipsidae) that attacks various vertebrates and humans as a blood- sucking parasite on the soil of humid forests in Southeast Asia .
features
The body of Haemadipsa zeylanica is brown in color and is usually drawn in the middle of the back with a light or dark vertical stripe, but other patterns can also appear. The drawing is less noticeably bright than in Haemadipsa picta . The Ceylon gel has fewer than 80 radial ribs on the ventral surface of the posterior suction cup. In contrast to Haemadipsa sylvestris , the indentations of the furrows on the body surface are not very noticeable, in particular they are not on segments 8 to 12. The leech is also barely 4 cm long and then takes on a very slender cylindrical shape. Like other leeches of the genus Haemadipsa , it has three jaws, each with a simple row of teeth.
The subspecies Haemadipsa zeylanica japonica , which lives in Japan and is also listed by some authors as a separate species Haemadipsa japonica Yang, 1996 (Japanese mountain gel), has alternating three dark, narrow and two lighter, wider longitudinal stripes on the back as well as two narrow pale yellow Vertical stripes on the side are the rule. A similar pattern, in which the middle dark line is interrupted, is also found in subspecies in other areas.
distribution
Haemadipsa zeylanica is - in spite of its name "Ceylonegel" - distributed throughout Southeast Asia from India , Nepal and Sri Lanka to Japan and Indonesia and represented by several geographical subspecies. In Nepal there is the subspecies Haemadipsa zeylanica agilis Moore, 1927 with black spots on the back, of which specimens up to 15.5 mm in length and 3.6 mm in width are known. The two subspecies Haemadipsa zeylanica subagilis Moore, 1929 and Haemadipsa zeylanica sumatrana (Horst, 1884) live on Borneo , the latter also on Sumatra . In Japan it is the Japanese mountain gel Haemadipsa zeylanica japonica Whitman, 1886 and Haemadipsa zeylanica rjukjuana Oka, 1910 , which are also listed by some authors as separate species Haemadipsa japonica and Haemadipsa rjukjuana .
Habitat and way of life
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The Ceylonegel is a soil inhabitant of moist forests, but also lives in the herb layer below 1 m. Therefore, he usually attacks his host on the legs first. Unlike Haemadipsa picta , but just like Haemadipsa sylvestris , its bite is hardly noticed due to the effect of an anesthetic in its saliva, so that it often soaks up blood unnoticed and then drops. It can become very common in some areas and affect humans in large numbers.
Reproductive cycle
Haemadipsa zeylanica reaches an age of around 5 years. Like other leech is the Ceylonegel a hermaphrodite , who as Kieferegel a penis has. With mutual copulation, the sperm is transferred through the penis directly into the gonopore of the sex partner. The eggs are laid in a protective cocoon, where they develop into ready-made little leeches. In Japan, the Japanese deer Cervus nippon is mentioned as an important host, which widely distributes the leech as a vector.
literature
- Alfred Moquin-Tandon : Monograph de la famille des Hirudinées. Gabon, Paris 1827. pp. 120f. No. 9. Sangsue du Ceylan. Sanguisuga zeylanica.
- Hasko Friedrich Nesemann: Aquatic invertebrates of the Ganga River System: Mollusca, Annelida, Crustacea (in part) , Volume 1. Chandi Press, Kathmandu 2007. p. 155.
- Hugh L. Keegan, Seiichi Toshioka, Hiroshi Suzuki: Blood Sucking Asian Leeches of Families Hirudidae [sic] and Haemadipsidae. US Army Medical Command, Japan, 1968.
- JP Moore: Arhynchobdellae. In: WA Harding, JP Moore (Ed.): The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Hirudinea. Taylor and Francis, London 1927. pp. 97-298, here 254ff.
- A. Soos: Identification key to the leech (Hirudinoidea) genera of the world with a catalog of the species. IV. Family: Haemadipsidae. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 13, pp. 417-432, 1967
- Urania Tierreich , Volume 2. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1966. P. 79, 84f., Family Haemadipsidae, Landegel .
Individual evidence
- ^ Roy T Sawyer, Alan Taylor, Mohd Jaya bin Hj Sahat (1982): The leeches of Brunei (Annelida: Hirudinea), with a checklist and key to the known and expected freshwater, terrestrial and marine leeches of Borneo. Brunei Museum Journal 5 (2), p. 178.
- Jump up ↑ Hugh L. Keegan, Seiichi Toshioka, Hiroshi Suzuki: Blood Sucking Asian Leeches of Families Hirudidae [sic] and Haemadipsidae. US Army Medical Command, Japan, 1968. p. 35.
- ↑ a b Yi-Te Lai, Takafumi Nakano, Jiun-Hong Chen (2011): Three species of land leeches from Taiwan, Haemadipsa rjukjuana comb. n., a new record for Haemadipsa picta Moore, and an updated description of Tritetrabdella taiwana (Oka). ZooKeys 139, pp. 1-22.
- ↑ See picture: Haemadipsa zeylanica fully sucked in Pahang , Malaysia .
- ^ Hasko Friedrich Nesemann: Aquatic invertebrates of the Ganga River System: Mollusca, Annelida, Crustacea (in part) , Volume 1. Chandi Press, Kathmandu 2007. p. 155.
- ^ Roy T Sawyer, Alan Taylor, Mohd Jaya bin Hj Sahat (1982): The leeches of Brunei (Annelida: Hirudinea), with a checklist and key to the known and expected freshwater, terrestrial and marine leeches of Borneo. Brunei Museum Journal 5 (2), p. 181.
- Jump up ↑ Hugh L. Keegan, Seiichi Toshioka, Hiroshi Suzuki: Blood Sucking Asian Leeches of Families Hirudidae [sic] and Haemadipsidae. US Army Medical Command, Japan, 1968. Genus Haemadipsa Tennent, pp. 33, 44.
- ↑ Ikuo Yamanaka, Chieko Yamanaka, Hiroko Inamura, Akiomi Yamane (2004): Life table of the land leech, Haemadipsa zeylanica japonica (Gnathobdellida: Haemadipsidae). 115th The Japanese Forestry Society Congress, Session ID: P3057, doi: 10.11519 / jfs.115.0.P3057.0 .
