Phytobdella catenifera is a large (5-cm long) terrestrial leech found in Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

. John Percy Moore

John Percy Moore

John Percy Moore was an American zoologist specialising in leeches. He was born at Williamsport, Pa. and was educated at the Central High School of Philadelphia and at the University of Pennsylvania B.S., 1892; Ph.D., 1896), where he was instructor in zoology from 1892 to 1907, assistant...

 chose this species’ epithet ‘catenifera’ after the striking chain-striped pattern on the creature’s back (Latin catena = chain).

Range and ecology

In 1935, the then curator of the Raffles Museum, Michael Tweedie

Michael Tweedie

Michael Wilmer Forbes Tweedie was a naturalist and archaeologist working in South East Asia, who was Director of the Raffles Museum in Singapore....

, collected the type specimen among 23 of its kin on a brown tortoise Manouria emys

Manouria emys

Asian forest tortoise , also known as Asian brown tortoise, is a species of tortoise found in India , Bangladesh, Burma , Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia .-Description:...

. The type locality is Gunung Pulai in Johore and there is one record from Gabai Falls

Gabai Falls

The Gabai Falls are located in Hulu Langat at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. It is a popular attraction for the locals, but relatively unknown with tourists. A cemented path leads from the parking to the lower falls. Along the path several shelters have been built. The upper falls can be reached by...

 in Selangor

Selangor

Selangor also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity") is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south and the Strait of Malacca to the west...

. One of the reasons P. catenifera is seldom seen is that it is only attracted to reptiles and is of no threat to humans. However, one species of Phytobdella (P. lineata) from Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 is thought to be zoonotic (i.e. it can transmit diseases to humans).
Some texts on tropical medicine erroneously list P. catenifera among aquatic species occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the genus Phytobdella is restricted to the Indo-Pacific

Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...

 Region, with P. catenifera being found only in Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

 and other species being found in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 (P. meyeri), the Moluccas (P. moluccensis) and Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 (P. lineata and P. maculosa). A possible sixth species, as yet unidentified, has been found in Laos

Laos

Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

.

Taxonomy

Recent work on leech genetics and morphology suggests that the Indo-Pacific

Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...

 land leeches originated in Gondwana

Gondwana

In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...

 (a southern supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 million years ago). Although findings on Phytobdella have yet to be published, the molecular analysis appears to support earlier studies that place all Asian land leeches in the family Haemadipsidae.

External links

• A video of this unusual leech has been made from a specimen collected from Gabai Falls
  Gabai Falls
  The Gabai Falls are located in Hulu Langat at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. It is a popular attraction for the locals, but relatively unknown with tourists. A cemented path leads from the parking to the lower falls. Along the path several shelters have been built. The upper falls can be reached by...
  
  in 2007.