Freiburg Bächle leeches
| Freiburg Bächle leeches | ||||||||||||
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Freiburg Bächle leech ( Trocheta intermedia ) with cocoons |
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| Trocheta intermedia | ||||||||||||
| Kutschera , 2010 |
The Freiburg Bächle -Egel ( Trocheta intermedia ) is a freshwater leech species from the order of the Schlundegel (Pharyngobdelliformes). It was discovered in 1983 and first described in 2010 by the evolutionary biologist Ulrich Kutschera . So far, the species has only been found in the rivers of the southern German city of Freiburg im Breisgau , where it can be easily identified, among other things, due to its typical cocoons .
description
The Freiburg Bächle leech becomes 5 to 7 centimeters long. Both sides of the body are dark brown to black in color.
Occurrence and discovery
In 1983 a population of throat leeches was discovered in Dietenbach, in the Weingarten district of Freiburg . It turned out that the most common throat fluke in Germany, the eight-eyed throat fluke ( Erpobdella octoculata Linnaeus 1758), was not present, but a species identification proved to be difficult. The “Dietenbach leeches” were therefore initially assigned to the Trocheta bykowskii Gedoyć taxon in 1913. In 1999, however, it was found that the "Carpathian leech" T. bykowskii has a more northerly distribution area and is absent in southern Germany. The Freiburg "Dietenbach leech" was therefore placed in the taxon Trocheta pseudodina Nesemann in 1990. However, a systematic comparison of species showed that T. pseudodina, due to its body size, could a. Characteristics can be clearly distinguished from its southern German relatives, so that there is no species identity. DNA sequence analyzes and morphological-anatomical investigations have shown that the Freiburg “Dietenbach leech” represents a new species that was described as Trocheta intermedia in the “Year of Biodervisity 2010” . The history of the discovery of this species was described in the YouTube video "Der Freiburger Baechle Egel - Zwittrige Garbage Remover in Dietenbach".
Systematic position
The species name "intermedia" indicates that it is a medium-sized pharynx - it is longer than the eight-eyed pharynx Erpobdella octoculata , but smaller than all its relatives of the genus Trocheta described so far . The full species name of the medium-sized Bächle-Eel, which has been found in several rivers in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau and in the Dreisam , is Trocheta intermedia Kutschera 2010. The species differs in body size and cocoon morphology from its sister species Trocheta pseudodina Nesemann 1990 and the "Carpathian leech" Trocheta bykowskii Gedoyć 1913. Furthermore, the three closely related species are identified as separate taxa via DNA sequence analyzes. The species-specific mitochondrial gene sequence for T. intermedia has the COI GenBank no. DQ009669.
Clemens Grosser considers T. intermedia to be a more recent synonym for Dina punctata mauchi
Ecology and evolution
The leeches live in the shallow water zone and the humid bank region, where they feed on predatory food , including mosquito larvae and small earthworms . Dead fish are also accepted as food. The living prey organisms or pieces of tissue are sucked in as a whole with the help of the muscular, toothless throat. The hermaphrodite annelids mate in spring (beginning of March) and show a sexual behavior typical of other throat fluke (Erpobdella sp.). The reddish-colored, irregularly shaped cocoons, which are deposited in the running waters on the underside of stones in March / April at water temperatures below 10 ° C, should be emphasized. They are larger than those of the species E. octoculata , also found in the Freiburg area , whose egg capsules, which were deposited in June / August, are uniformly oval-shaped and light brown in color. The Schlundegel species T. intermedia and E. octoculata colonize different bodies of water in the Freiburg area. The larger Trocheta species presumably displaces the smaller Erpobdella , so that it can only exist where T. intermedia has not yet penetrated. With this new description, since 2010 the city of Freiburg im Breisgau has had its own animal species created by geographical isolation (i.e. separated from a northern species), which so far could only be detected in the running waters of this southern German region.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ulrich Kutschera: A new leech species from Southern Germany, Trocheta intermedia nov. sp. (Hirudinea: Erpobdellidae). (PDF; 2.8 MB) Lauterbornia (2010) 70; Pp. 1-9.
- ↑ Ulrich Kutschera : The Freiburg Bächle leech and the alpha taxonomy. Biology in Our Time (2010) 40/6: 14-15
- ↑ Evolutionary Biologists DE: Playlist 4: Video 6: The Freiburg Baechle Egel - Zwittrige garbage disposal in Dietenbach
- ↑ Ulrich Kutschera: The Freiburg Bächle leech and the alpha taxonomy. Biology in Our Time (2010) 40/6: 14-15.
- ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/DQ009669
- ↑ Grosser, Clemens, 2015: Differentiation of some similar species of the subfamily Trochetinae (Hirudinida: Erpobdellidae) , Ecologica Montenegrina 2 (1): 29-41.
- ^ Ulrich Kutschera: | Sex-Gender-Conflicts in Aquatic hermaphrodites: are Genes Immortal? J. Marine Sci. Res. Dev. (2017) 7/2: 1-4.