Batracobdella algira (Moquin-Tandon, 1846)

Lunghi, Enrico, Ficetola, Gentile Francesco, Mulargia, Manuela, Cogoni, Roberto, Veith, Michael, Corti, Claudia & Manenti, Raoul, 2018, Batracobdella leeches, environmental features and Hydromantes salamanders, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 7 (1), pp. 48-53 : 49

2.1. The ectoparasite: Batracobdella algira

After the first description of Batracobdella algira by Moquin-Tandon (1846), few studies dealt with this species, mostly describing development and distribution. B. algira is a greenish dorsoventrally flattened leech belonging to the group of jawless leeches ( Ben Ahmed et al., 2015). It is mostly distributed in the Mediterranean basin ( Minelli, 1979; Nesemann, 1991; Ben Ahmed et al., 2015), where it parasitizes several species of amphibians ( Ben Ahmed et al., 2015; Manenti et al., 2016); it is the only known ectoparasite of the Sardinian Hydromantes salamanders ( Lanza et al., 2006) . This leech has also been identified as a vector of some pathogenic micro-parasites, such as the protists Lankesterella and the protozoan Trypanosoma ( Jiménez Sánchez, 1997) . Batracobdella algira has been reported for different freshwater habitats (both lentic and lotic) and was even found in subterranean ones, generally attached to hosts like Discoglossus and Pelophylax frogs ( Minelli, 1979). In both surface and subterranean terrestrial habitats it was found parasitizing Hydromantes species in different localities of Sardinia ( Mertens, 1929; Manenti et al., 2016). However, ecological observations on B. algira remain scarce, and almost no investigations have been carried out on the factors affecting its distribution and phenology ( Nesemann, 1991). Breeding occurs only once in life: adult individuals (≥ 20 mm) mostly breed during spring, producing several eggs which hatch after ∼3 weeks ( Ben Ahmed et al., 2009; Romdhane et al., 2015). Parents provide pre- and post-hatch parental care and die 2–3 weeks after the hatch (Romdhane et al., 2015).