Monster From the Vault: A New Finding of One of the Largest European Leech Trocheta Haskonis Grosser, 2000 From Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

One extremely large leech specimen of Trocheta haskonis Grosser, 2000, reaching almost 190 mm when contracted, was collected in an underground vault constructed out of concrete in the village Prijakovci in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This finding indicates that one of the largest European leech species can colonize also small artificial habitats like a utility vaults, possible also subway tunnels and storm drains.

Application of Modern Approaches to Species Delimitation in Freshwater Erpobdellidae (Hirudinea: Arhynchobdellida) with a New Interpretation of Their Genera

“…The Dina species complex, previously relegated to a subgenus within Erpobdella [29], was later returned to genus status based on its morphology [30], which was subsequently reconfirmed by detailed molecular data [32]. The formal disappearance of the Palaearctic genus Trocheta was also not accepted [27,35,37,65,66]. In this study, three different phylogenetic reconstruction algorithms (NJ, ML, and BI) supported the independent positions of Dina and Trocheta, as well as the separately clustered Palearctic and Nearctic representatives of Erpobdella (Figure 1, Figures S1 and S2).…”

Trocheta ariescornuta n. sp. (Annelida, Hirudinida: Erpobdellidae) – a new cavernicolous leech from Motena Cave in Georgia

“…are separated by four narrow annuli. Trocheta haskonis, described from Germany (Grosser 2000) and recorded from Southeast Europe (Grosser 2013, Grosser et al 2018 and Iran (Darabi-Darestani et al 2016), is well characterized by accessory pores left and right beside the male gonopore. Male and female gonopore are separated by two to three annuli.…”

“…. Later, T. haskonis was reported from the cave Jama u Laništu in Eastern Serbia (Grosser 2013) and in Bosnia and Herzegovina from an utility vault for a water clock at 250 m distance from the nearby stream (Grosser et al 2018).…”

Importance of Small Water Bodies for Diversity of Leeches (Hirudinea) of Western Balkan

“…Trocheta haskonis relatively new species to the science and one of the largest leeches of Europe was recorded in region. In Serbia the leech was found in a cave, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina it was found in a utility vault [26,57]. Further investigation of similar habitats such as caves could yield more records of this leech.…”