Article
Article
Rhynchobdellida
Article By:
Siddall, Mark E. Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York.
Last reviewed:August 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.588100
An order of leeches (subclass Hirudinida) characterized by having a protrusible muscular proboscis and including both blood-feeding and liquidosomatophagous (predatory) varieties. Most notorious among the blood-feeding leeches in the Rhynchobdellida is the giant Amazonian leech Haementeria ghilianii, which is a member of the flat and leaflike freshwater family Glossiphoniidae. Other freshwater glossiphoniid species are distributed in North America and Europe (Placobdella species) [see illustration] as well as in Africa and Asia (Placobdelloides species). Two other rhynchobdellid families possess a protrusible proboscis—fish ectoparasites in the long and thin Piscicolidae and turtle ectoparasites in the Ozobranchidae. Both of these families are predominantly marine, but they also have freshwater representatives. See also: Hirudinida
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