Description and taxonomic analysis of a tuberculated turtle leech from the Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA, provisionally identified as Placobdella multilineata Moore, 1953 (Hirudinea: Glossiphoniidae).

A tuberculated species of turtle leech is indigenous to the Great Dismal Swamp and environs of northeastern North Carolina, and differs from other known species of Placobdella. This study of hundreds of specimens for more than a decade documents its unexpected taxonomic complexity. In fact, this seemingly innocuous leech undergoes radical transformations in terms of morphology and behaviour, each adapted to a different phase of its life cycle. Biological observations reveal a progressive darkening with age which imposes taxonomic uncertainties. Furthermore, some commonly used characters are found to be unsound for taxonomic diagnosis in that they do not occur in all individuals of this species. The primary objective of this paper is a comprehensive description of this Albemarle turtle leech. The question is then asked, what distinguishes it from allied species? Toward this end, a formal taxonomic diagnosis is proposed based on details of the proboscis complex and crop-related tuberculation. This species is allied to the northern P. rugosa (Verrill, 1874) or its southern counterpart P. multilineata Moore, 1953. However, synonymy to either of these forms is problematical due to inadequacy of type descriptions. Nonetheless, in view of habitat similarity the Albemarle leech is provisionally identified as P. multilineata pending comparable studies of variability and development of other tuberculated Placobdella.

Observations on the terrestrial leech Haemopis septagon Sawyer amp; Shelley, 1976 (Annelida: Hirudinea) from the Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA, with a revision of the species.

The terrestrial leech Haemopis septagon Sawyer Shelley, 1976, is indigenous to the Great Dismal Swamp and environs of northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, USA. Ever since its discovery in 1895 at Lake Drummond in the Dismal Swamp, this elusive species has been recognized as taxonomically aberrant. For example, it is the only jawed leech in the United States with seven annuli between gonopores, and the only one with sixteen complete (5-annulate) segments, both highly conserved characters in the Hirudinidae.                The discovery of two populations of H. septagon in the Albemarle Peninsula in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina afforded an opportunity to investigate the taxonomy and biology of this inadequately characterized species. Its description in this study is the first comprehensive account of the external and internal anatomy of this species since its incomplete original description in 1976. This study is also an opportunity to correct errors in the incomplete original description, and to elucidate morphological and developmental variability of taxonomic significance. Evidence is presented for the first time of a possible aquatic or semi-aquatic form of H. septagon.                These Albemarle individuals were compared to the holotype from Durham County, NC, specimens from southeastern Virginia and a terrestrial leech recently reported from southern New Jersey. All of these fall within the variability demonstrated in this study for the Albemarle populations, and are accordingly recognized as the same species, H. septagon.  Consequentially, Haemopis ottorum Wirchansky Shain, 2010, is recognized as a junior synonym of Haemopis septagon.

Description of the Southern swamp leech Philobdella floridana (Verrill, 1874) (Annelida: Hirudinea) from the Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA, with a revision of the species.

The jawed leech Philobdella floridana (Verrill, 1874) occurs widely in swamps of the southeastern United States. The discovery of a population of P. floridana in Lake Phelps, an isolated lake in the Albemarle Peninsula in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina, is by far the northernmost record for this species. Description of the Lake Phelps leech in this paper is the first comprehensive account of the internal anatomy of P. floridana. Comparable internal descriptions of P. floridana from other geographic regions are also presented for the first time. This new understanding of the internal features of this species is the basis of a taxonomic revision of P. floridana.        All specimens examined in this study possessed remarkably similar jaws and teeth within the range of 22-26 per jaw, regardless of the size or origin of the leech. All mature specimens possessed external copulatory slits and pores which uniquely characterise the genus Philobdella. This study shows for the first time that these external features are attributable to a complex internal network of gastropores emanating from the crop caeca of the genital segments. Nonetheless, the reproductive anatomy of this species is by far the most rudimentary of any Hirudinidae in North America.        A major finding of this study is that the Lake Phelps population differs significantly from other known P. floridana in one significant respect. Specifically, the gut has an intimate anatomical association with the nephridia, an enteronephric feature previously unknown within the Hirudinea. At least in this study, enteronephry may be confined to Lake Phelps, leaving open the possibility that this population of P. floridana may be endemic to this relict lake which has a history of endemicity.