Resurrection and redescription of Verrill, 1872 (Hirudinida, Glossiphoniidae) with a phylogeny of the genus .

(Verrill, 1872) is resurrected and redescribed based on morphological and molecular data from specimens of the type locality (New Haven County, Connecticut, USA) that demonstrate it is distinct from North American , European , and . is characterized by having dark chromatophores on the dorsal surface arranged lateral to patrilaterally and medially as a thin line or interrupted thin line along with three pairs of eye spots (with the first pair closest together), six pairs of crop ceca, and a united gonopore. Additional sampling of specimens of the genus is needed to understand its phylogeny especially as many species have not been collected since their description.

Spatial distribution of epibionts on olive ridley sea turtles at Playa Ostional, Costa Rica.

There is a wealth of published information on the epibiont communities of sea turtles, yet many of these studies have exclusively sampled epibionts found only on the carapace. Considering that epibionts may be found on almost all body-surfaces and that it is highly plausible to expect different regions of the body to host distinct epibiont taxa, there is a need for quantitative information on the spatial variation of epibiont communities on turtles. To achieve this, we measured how total epibiont abundance and biomass on olive ridley turtles Lepidochelys olivacea varies among four body-areas of the hosts (n = 30).

An updated and detailed taxonomical account of the large Branchiopoda (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Anostraca, Notostraca, Spinicaudata) from the Yale North India Expedition deposited in the Yale Peabody Natural History Museum.

We present an updated taxonomic account of a few of the large branchiopod species present in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Our study shows that the Artemia species in the collections is not Artemia salina given the presence of spines at the base of the penis and its frontal knob morphology. This population cannot be assigned to any particular species due to lack of comparative material of other Artemia species and therefore, now reduces the authentic distribution record of Artemia salina to just one in the subcontinent.

A new species of leech of the genus (Hirudinida, Glossiphoniidae) from the American alligator () in Mississippi, USA.

To date, the only species of leech reported from the American Alligator, is . Seven specimens of a previously undescribed species of were collected from the feet and lower jaw of a single female alligator from the Pascagoula River Wildlife Management Area, George County, Mississippi. The new species was named Richardson & Moser, , in honor of the contributions of Dr.

Redescription of (Rathbun, 1904) (Decapoda, Potamonautidae) and description of a new congeneric species from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

A new species of freshwater crab, , is described from the southern region of the KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. most closely resembles which is re-described here, but can be distinguished by a suite of key morphological characters including carapace shape and width, slim pereopods, inflated propodi of the chelipeds, and the shape and terminal segment length:subterminal segment length ratio of the 1 gonopod. In a previous study (Gouws et al.

Epibiotic Diatoms Are Universally Present on All Sea Turtle Species.

The macro-epibiotic communities of sea turtles have been subject to growing interest in recent years, yet their micro-epibiotic counterparts are almost entirely unknown. Here, we provide the first evidence that diatoms are epibionts for all seven extant species of sea turtle. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy, we inspected superficial carapace or skin samples from a single representative of each turtle species.

Morphological and molecular characterization of a new species of leech (Glossiphoniidae, Hirudinida): Implications for the health of its imperiled amphibian host (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis).

The hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) is among the most intriguing and imperiled amphibians in North America. Since the 1970s and 80s, western populations of the Ozark and eastern subspecies in Missouri have declined by nearly 80%. As a result of population declines, the Ozark hellbender was recently federally protected as an endangered species, and the eastern subspecies was granted protection under CITES.

Redescription and molecular characterization of Placobdella cryptobranchii (Johnson & Klemm, 1977) (Glossiphoniidae, Hirudinida).

Placobdella cryptobranchii (Johnson & Klemm, 1977) was originally described from specimens collected from Ozark Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) from the North Fork of the White River in Missouri, U.S.A.

A new species of Helobdella (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniidae) from Oregon, USA.

Helobdella bowermani n. sp. is described from specimens collected in fine sediment of open water benthos of Upper Klamath Lake, Klamath County, Oregon.