Observations on the terrestrial leech Haemopis septagon Sawyer & Shelley, 1976 (Annelida: Hirudinea) from the Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA, with a revision of the species
Author
Sawyer, Roy T.
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-08-22
4658
2
275
296
journal article
25936
10.11646/zootaxa.4658.2.4
6b650d64-6a54-492b-8d0a-2e62b770bbf4
1175-5326
3375842
E3CB3820-A6CA-4DF3-91C1-6D09732A583E
Haemopis septagon
Sawyer & Shelley, 1976
. Revised
Synonymy
:
Haemopis septagon
Sawyer & Shelley, 1976
;
Shelley 1977
;
Shelley
et al.
1979
.
Haemopis ottorum
Wirchansky & Shain, 2010
.
Diagnosis
. Eyes 5 pairs in characteristic hirudinid arc; 16 complete (5-annulate) segments (IX–XXIV); male and female gonopores separated by 6 ½ to 7 annuli, typically at XIb5/b6 and XIIIb1/b2; typically 14–16 distichodont teeth per jaw; known from mid-Atlantic coastal plain, from South Carolina to southern New
Jersey
(
Fig. 10
).
Description
. Terrestrial, semi-terrestrial or amphibious; predaceous on oligochaetes; length of adults up to at least
150 mm
; pigmentation concolor with no metameric patterns, basically olive green in life, with or without irregular black specks dorsally (and sometimes ventrally); jaws low and rounded; at least one pharyngeal ridge terminating between each jaw; lengthy pharynx, extending to ganglion XI; adult crop basically a long irregular tube without bilateral caeca, except a pair of posterior caeca extending from segment XIX to XXIV (
NOTE
: In juvenile specimens there are two sets of distinguishable crop caeca per segment, not evident in adults) (see
Fig. 8
); intestine comprised of two parts (see
Fig. 4
); ejaculatory bulb and epididymis well developed; ejaculatory ducts lengthy and tortuous; small vaginal caecum, even in juveniles; segments VII, 3-annulate; VIII, 4-annulate; the two adjacent annuli VIIa3 and VIIIa1 characteristically broadened; XXIV, 5-annulate; XXV, 3-annulate; female gonopore sometimes with a nipple-like protuberance, commonplace in adults but not juveniles; penis sometimes everted externally; male opening penetrates ventral body wall behind ganglion XI and the female opening penetrates immediately anterior to ganglion XIII; prostate located in segment XII and the ovisacs at ganglion XIII; penis sheath and vaginal stalk increasingly long and coiled as animal matures, with flexion from ganglion XIII 1/
2 in
juveniles to as far as ganglion XVI in mature adults; epididymis extending well beyond ejaculatory bulb in mature adults (much smaller in juveniles); 11 (10–12) pairs of testisacs, in segments XIII to XXIII, inclusively.