Hirudo

Hirudo
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Clade: Pleistoannelida
Clade: Sedentaria
Class: Clitellata
Subclass: Hirudinea
Order: Arhynchobdellida
Family: Hirudinidae
Genus: Hirudo
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Hirudo medicinalis[1]
Linnaeus, 1758

Hirudo is a genus of leeches of the family Hirudinidae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.[2]

The two well-accepted species within the genus are:[3]

Three other species, previously synonymized with H. medicinalis, were described in 2005 and are gaining acceptance:[3][4][5]

  1. ^ International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1922). "Opinion 75. Twenty-Seven Generic Names of Protozoa, Vermes, Pisces, Reptilia and Mammalia Included in the Official List of Zoological Names". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 73 (1): 35–37.
  2. ^ "ITIS standard report: Hirudo (Linnaeus, 1758)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  3. ^ a b Trontelj, P; Utevsky, SY (2005). "Celebrity with a neglected taxonomy: molecular systematics of the medicinal leech (genus Hirudo)". Mol Phylogenet Evol. 34 (3): 616–624. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.10.012. PMID 15683933.
  4. ^ DeSalle, R.; Egan, M. G.; Siddall, M. (2005). "The unholy trinity: taxonomy, species delimitation and DNA barcoding". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 360 (1462): 1905–1916. doi:10.1098/rstb.2005.1722. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 1609226. PMID 16214748.
  5. ^ Saglam, N.; Saunders, R.; Lang, S. A.; Shain, D. H. (2016). "A new species of Hirudo (Annelida: Hirudinidae): historical biogeography of Eurasian medicinal leeches". BMC Zoology. 1 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1186/s40850-016-0002-x. ISSN 2056-3132.