Glossiphonia elegans (Verrill, 1872) Castle, 1900

Oceguera-Figueroa, Alejandro, Kvist, Sebastian, Watson, Sara C., Sankar, Dominic F., Overstreet, Robin M. & Siddall, Mark E., 2010, Leech Collections from Washington State, with the Description of Two New Species of Placobdella (Annelida: Glossiphoniidae), American Museum Novitates 2010 (3701), pp. 1-16 : 9

Glossiphonia elegans (Verrill, 1872) Castle, 1900

Figure 14

The presence of three pairs of eyespots, dorsal papillation and pigmentation pattern, two paramedial longitudinal stripes in the ventral surface, two annuli between gonopores, and a relatively large size correspond with the description of Glossiphonia elegans . North American and European forms have very similar morphological traits, to the extent that previous taxonomists (i.e., Klemm, 1982; Sawyer, 1986) considered them to be the same species: Glossiphonia complanata (Linnaeus, 1758) . However, Siddall et al. (2005), using phylogenetic criteria, found that they represent different evolutionary lineages and resurrected Verrill’s 1872 name Glossiphonia elegans for the North American species (see also Madill and Hovingh, 2007). Found on the underside of submerged rocks and wood.

Figures

FIGURES 14–19. Glossiphoniids found in Washington in this study; dorsal and ventral views, left and right respectively. 14. Glossiphonia elegans. 15. Helobdella elongata. 16. H. modesta. 17. Helobdella papillata. 18. Placobdella montifera. 19. Theromyzon cf. rude. Scale bars = 5 mm.