Ozobranchidae
| Ozobranchidae | ||||||||||||
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Ozobranchus jantseanus , length approx. 7 mm |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ozobranchidae | ||||||||||||
| Pinto , 1921 |
Ozobranchidae is the name of a family of small leeches in the order of the trunk leeches , which live in the sea and in fresh water and largely parasitize species-specific on turtles and one species on crocodiles . It comprises 8 species in 2 genera that are distributed in tropical waters around the world.
features
The body of the Ozobranchidae is clearly divided into a front region consisting of a head and neck, counting 12 segments and an abdomen. In the front section of the abdomen, starting with the 13th segment, each of the following, depending on the type, 5 to 20 segments has a pair of gills , while the following rear section has no gills . On the other hand, there are no pulsating vesicles like some fish leeches . While the finger-like gills of Bogabdella diversa have a simple, completely unbranched shape with a blunt end, the gills in the genus Ozobranchus are tree-like and widely branched.
The mouth pore of the Ozobranchidae has an eccentric shape. The short proboscis (trunk) is followed by a larger pharynx (gullet) that extends to the end of the 12th segment. The following foregut section is designed as a crop with a front and a rear pair of blind sacs. This is followed by a middle section of the intestine with four pairs of blind sacks facing the back, while the rearmost intestine section has no blind sacks. The 8 ganglia of the anterior 8 segments are concentrated in an anterior ganglia mass. The paired testes of the hermaphrodite animals are compact and connected to a central muscular organ via paired sperm conductors.
Development cycle
The mating behavior of the Ozobranchidae, which mate as hermaphrodites on the host, is hardly known. The fertilized eggs are attached in hard egg cocoons to the host's skin, typically to the turtle shell, and are left to their own devices. Small, fully developed leeches hatch from the cocoons.
Distribution, habitat and nutrition
The eight species of the family Ozobranchidae are marine or freshwater inhabitants of the tropics , depending on the habitat of the parasitized reptile species . As permanent ectoparasites , they suck blood - Ozobranchus quatrefagesi in West Africa on crocodiles and pelicans , all other species on the other hand exclusively on turtles . Ozobranchus branchiatus as a species-specific parasite on Chelonia mydas and Ozobranchus margoi on Caretta caretta are distributed in tropical seas around the world, while the other species, of which Ozobranchus jantseanus , the most widespread species , feed on various turtles in inland waters of Asia, while Bogabdella diversa feed on turtles in salt water and freshwater in Australia ( New South Wales , Victoria and Western Australia ).
Systematics
Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau chose the name Ozobranchus "Zweig-Kiemer" ( ancient Greek ὄζος ózos "twig", βράγχιον bránchion "Gill") when describing the type genus due to the conspicuous branched gills of these leeches. César Pinto raised the genus to the rank of the Ozobranchidae family in 1921, while Laurence R. Richardson also re-described the Ozobranchidae family in 1969 in connection with his first description of Bogabdella diversa .
The Ozobranchidae together with the families of fish leeches (Piscicolidae) and Plattegel (Glossiphoniidae) the order of the Rüsselegel (Rhynchobdellida) within the sub-class of the bristle lots flukes (Euhirudinea).
The family Ozobranchidae includes the following 2 genera with a total of 8 species :
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Ozobranchus Quatrefages , 1852 (5 to 20 pairs of tree-like branched gills, on turtles or crocodiles)
- Ozobranchus branchiatus ( Menzies , 1791) (7 pairs of gills, on Chelonia mydas , in tropical seas worldwide)
- Ozobranchus jantseanus Oka , 1912 (11 pairs of gills, on various freshwater turtles, in China, Japan and large parts of Asia)
- Ozobranchus margoi ( Apáthy , 1890) (5 pairs of gills, on Caretta caretta , in tropical seas worldwide)
- Ozobranchus polybranchus Sanjeeva Raj , 1951 (20 pairs of gills, on Pelochelys bibroni , in rivers and streams of South Asia and Southeast Asia)
- Ozobranchus papillatus Kaburaki , 1921 (11 pairs of gills, on Kachuga tectum , in stagnant inland waters of India, according to Moore a synonym for Ozobranchus jantseanus )
- Ozobranchus shipleyi Harding , 1909 (11 pairs of gills, on Nicoria trijuga , in standing inland waters of Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan)
- Ozobranchus quatrefagesi (Poirier & Rochebrune, 1884) alias Lophobdella quatrefagesi (7 pairs of gills, on crocodiles and pelicans , in West Africa)
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Bogabdella Richardson , 1969
- Bogabdella diversa Richardson , 1969 (8 pairs of undivided finger-shaped gills, on various freshwater turtles in Australia)
literature
- Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (1852): Ozobranchus. Annales des sciences naturelles 3, série XVIII, p. 325.
- Laurence R. Richardson (1969): The family Ozobranchidae redefined, and a novel ozobranchiform leech from Murray River turtles (class Hirudinoidea: order Rhynchobdelliformes). Proceedings of The Linnean Society of New South Wales 94, pp. 61-80.
- Mahesh Chandra: The Leeches of India: A Handbook. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta 1991, p. 13.
- Roy T. Sawyer: Leech Biology and Behavior: Feeding biology, ecology, and systematics. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1986. pp. 660, 700, Ozobranchus, Ozobranchidae .