Erpobdella obscura Verrill 1872

• Main Authors: Madill, Jacqueline, Hovingh, Peter
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Annelida; Clitellata; Arhynchobdellida; Erpobdellidae; Erpobdella; Erpobdella obscura; Newfoundland; Leech; Metcalfe
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/5631637; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5631637

Erpobdella obscura (Verrill 1872) Synonym: Nephelopsis obscura Verrill 1872 Common name: Bait leech General distribution: Nearctic (Figures 2 H, 4 D, 6, 7, Tables 1, 2). Newfoundland: Survey: Site 7 (CMNA 2006 –0023), Site 18 (CMNA 2006 –0022); Museum specimen: CMNA 1900–5994; Literature: Pawlowski (1948) at Grand Falls. Labrador: Survey: Site 20 (CMNA 2006 –0021), Site 21 (CMNA 2006 –0020), Site 22 (CMNA 2006 – 0019), Site 23 (CMNA 2006 –0018), Site 28 (CMNA 2006 –0017), and Site 29 (CMNA 2006 –0016); Museum specimen: CMNA 1988 –0127 (Figure 4 D). Notes on the species. Verrill’s (1872) description of Erpobdella obscura strongly resembles some of the Newfoundland and Labrador specimens but there is also a previously unpublished color variation. Klemm (1985) describes the normal appearance of Erpobdella obscura (Figures 6 F, 7 B, E, I, J) as “color variable, dorsum greenish-brown, covered with sparse scattered black or light colored blotches, interlacing or irregular spots, or plain (uniform), no striping…” In Newfoundland and Labrador, we found Erpobdella obscura, with a pattern which we call ‘ringed’ because of horizontal dark pigment in the furrows between the annuli (Figure 7 A, D, F–H). These are remarkably similar to other ‘ringed’ specimens collected by J. Metcalfe-Smith in the Grand River, Ontario (north of Kitchener) at Winterbourne, Glen Morris, Upper Bellwood, and Elora Gorge (Figure 6, Table 3). Location Latitude Longitude Catalogue Number Catalogue Number Normal ‘Ringed’ The anatomy of ‘ringed’ forms was the same as normal specimens (Figure 6). Verrill (1874) had described the large mouth (Figure 6 A), the presence of 4 pairs of eyes (2 labial and 2 buccal) (Figure 6 B), the separation of the gonopores by 2 annuli (Figure 6 D), the partial subdivision of some annuli (Figures 6 B, D, E, 7 G, J), the large, raised anal orifice (Figure 6 E), and the spiraling of the ejaculatory ducts of Erpobdella obscura exiting the atrial cornua (Figure 6 C, G). The anatomy of both varieties was very similar in these ...