Morphological and genetic variations of the freshwater leech, Hirudinaria spp., in Peninsular Malaysia

A new species of buffalo leech in the genus Hirudinaria Whitman, 1886 (Arhynchobdellida, Hirudinidae) from Thailand

Hirudinaria manillensis (Lesson, 1842), commonly known as the buffalo leech, shows a polymorphism of two ventral colorations. The green color morph has a plain green ventral surface and the red color morph has a brick-red ventral surface with two black submarginal stripes. Based on molecular and morphological evidence in the present study, these two color morphs were revealed as two different species. The red color morph fits well with the description of H. manillensis, while the green color morph showed some distinctions, and therefore is described herein as Hirudinaria thailandica Jeratthitikul & Panha, sp. nov. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by the dark greenish or dark olive ventral surface and a round atrium with ventral insertion of ejaculatory ducts in the male reproductive organ. A phylogenetic tree based on concatenated data of COI and 28S genes supported the new species and further indicated it as a sister species to H. bpling Phillips, 2012.