TY - JOUR
T1 - Helobdella blinni sp. n. (Hirudinida, glossiphoniidae) a new species inhabiting montezuma well, Arizona, USA
AU - Beresic-Perrins, Rebecca K.
AU - Govedich, Fredric R.
AU - Banister, Kelsey
AU - Bain, Bonnie A.
AU - Rose, Devin
AU - Shuster, Stephen M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the National Park Service rangers and volunteers at the Montezuma Castle National Monument, especially Rex Vanderford, who assisted with collections and permits. Funding for the molecular and morphological analyses was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship. William Moser, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, provided valuable assistance in specimen management. Dr. Tina Ayers and Tamara Max (Northern Arizona University, Department of Biological Sciences) provided valuable assistance and insight with molecular data analyses. All the members past and present of Dr. Stephen Shuster’s laboratory were indispensable with all aspects of data collection for this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© Rebecca K. Beresic-Perrins et al.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - A new leech species Helobdella blinni sp. n., is described from Montezuma Well, an isolated travertine spring mound located in central Arizona, USA. In its native habitat, H. blinni had been previously identified as Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), which was later reclassified to Helobdella modesta (Verrill, 1872). Similar to the European H. stagnalis and North American H. modesta, H. blinni has six pairs of testisacs, five pairs of smooth crop caecae, one lobed pair of posteriorly-directed crop caecae, one pair of eyes, a nuchal scute, and diffuse salivary glands. However, the pigmentation of this new species ranges from light to dark brown, unlike H. modesta which tends to be light grey in color. Also, H. modesta produces a clutch of 12-–35 pink eggs, whereas H. blinni produces smaller clutches of white eggs (7–14, 0.5 ± 0.15 mm, N = 7) and consequently broods fewer young (1–14, 7 ± 3.3 mm, N = 97). Helobdella blinni are also able to breed year-round due to the constant warm water conditions in Montezuma Well. Their breeding season is not restricted by seasonal temperatures. These species are morphologically similar, however, comparing the COI mtDNA sequences of H. blinni with sequences from nearby populations of H. modesta and other Helobdella species from GenBank indicate that H. blinni is genetically distinct from these other Helobdella populations.
AB - A new leech species Helobdella blinni sp. n., is described from Montezuma Well, an isolated travertine spring mound located in central Arizona, USA. In its native habitat, H. blinni had been previously identified as Helobdella stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), which was later reclassified to Helobdella modesta (Verrill, 1872). Similar to the European H. stagnalis and North American H. modesta, H. blinni has six pairs of testisacs, five pairs of smooth crop caecae, one lobed pair of posteriorly-directed crop caecae, one pair of eyes, a nuchal scute, and diffuse salivary glands. However, the pigmentation of this new species ranges from light to dark brown, unlike H. modesta which tends to be light grey in color. Also, H. modesta produces a clutch of 12-–35 pink eggs, whereas H. blinni produces smaller clutches of white eggs (7–14, 0.5 ± 0.15 mm, N = 7) and consequently broods fewer young (1–14, 7 ± 3.3 mm, N = 97). Helobdella blinni are also able to breed year-round due to the constant warm water conditions in Montezuma Well. Their breeding season is not restricted by seasonal temperatures. These species are morphologically similar, however, comparing the COI mtDNA sequences of H. blinni with sequences from nearby populations of H. modesta and other Helobdella species from GenBank indicate that H. blinni is genetically distinct from these other Helobdella populations.
KW - Glossiphoniidae
KW - Helobdella blinni sp. n
KW - Leech
KW - Montezuma Well
KW - New species
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015677908&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85015677908&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3897/zookeys.661.9728
DO - 10.3897/zookeys.661.9728
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85015677908
SN - 1313-2989
VL - 2017
SP - 137
EP - 155
JO - ZooKeys
JF - ZooKeys
IS - 661
ER -