dcsimg

Comprehensive Description

provided by Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology
Bdellodrilus illuminatus (Moore, 1894)

Branchiobdella illuminata Moore, 1894:421–423.

Bdellodrilus illuminatus.—Moore, 1895b:497.

TYPE-SPECIMENS.—No longer extant, but taken at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Watauga County, North Carolina, on Cambarus bartonii (Fabricius, 1798), by J. Percy Moore.

HOSTS.—UNITED STATES: B. illuminatus is known (Goodnight, 1940:54; Hobbs, Holt, and Walton, 1967:51) to occur on seven species of the genus Cambarus and there are several unpublished records in my collections. MEXICO: Procambarus digueti, Cambarellus montezumae montezumae (Rioja, 1940).

DISTRIBUTION.—Bdellodrilus illuminatus probably ranges over the continent wherever its astacid hosts occur. Goodnight (1940:54) records it from Illinois; Hobbs, Holt, and Walton (1967:51–52) found it abundantly in their study of the Mountain Lake, Virginia, area; and I have scattered, unpublished records from many parts of the United States. It is an ancient and primitive species with specializations for a parasitic way of life in the gill chambers of its hosts. It probably reached the Central Plateau region of Mexico in pre-Pliocene times on either the ancestor of Procambarus digueti or the ancestors of the Mexican members of Cambarellus (Hobbs, 1917:12). Its apparent absence from the other faunistic regions of Mexico (and many parts of the United States) is probably an artifact of collecting. Most of the specimens of Mesoamerican branchiobdellids were removed from the sediments in museum jars containing crayfish collections; curators of such collections do not like to have their specimens damaged in a search for gill-inhabiting worms.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.—One specimen (PCH 1620) taken on Procambarus digueti at Jacona, Rancho Nueva Espana, km 470 carretera México-Guadalajara, Michoacán, by Dieter Enkerlin, 18 July 1950.

Astacobdella Leidy, 1851:206.

Branchiobdella.—Moore, 1894:427 [in part].

Bdellodrilus.—Pierantoni, 1912:24 [in part].

Cambarincola Ellis, 1912:481; 1919:263.—Hall, 1914:190.—Stephenson, 1930:801.—Yamaguchi, 1933:191; 1934:189.—Goodnight, 1940:30.—Holt and Hoffman, 1959:97.—Hoffman, 1963:271.—Hobbs, Holt, and Walton, 1967:52—Holt, 1969:197.

DIAGNOSIS (from Hobbs, Holt, and Walton, 1967:52).—“Body terete without specialized projections; anterior nephridia opening through common pore on dorsum of segment III; deferent ducts entering ental end of spermiducal gland; prostate and ejaculatory duct both present; penis non-eversible; bursa subpyriform to obcordate; spermatheca never bifid.”

TYPE-SPECIES.—Cambarincola macrodonta Ellis, 1912, by original designation.

RANGE.—North America. Species of the genus Cambarincola are the dominant components of the branchiobdellid fauna in all parts of North America where branchiobdellids occur (except from some streams of the Coastal Ranges and Cascade Mountains of the Pacific drainage), ranging from Ontario and Quebec to Costa Rica; and west to the Pacific coast of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

NOMENCLATURAL EMENDATIONS.—The examples given under Article 30 (a), (i), (2) of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, adopted by the XV International Congress of Zoology, clearly prescribes that the generic name Cambarincola is masculine. Of the twenty-two validly published species names in the genus, the following 13, therefore, required emendation:

Cambarincola philadelphica (Leidy) (1851:209) to C. Philadelphicus

Cambarincola macrodonta Ellis (1912:481) to C. macrodontus

Cambarincola vitrea Ellis (1918:49) to C. vitreus Cambarincola chirocephala Ellis (1919:263) to C. chirocephalus

Cambarincola floridana Goodnight (1941:73) to C. floridanus

Cambarincola macrocephela Goodnight (1943:100) to C. macrocephelus

Cambarincola branchiophila Holt (1954:168) to C.branchiophilus

Cambarincola aliena Holt (1963:97) to C. alienus

Cambarincola mesochorea Hoffman (1963:307) to C. mesochoreus

Cambarincola virginica Hoffman (1963:322) to C. virginicus

Cambarincola holostoma Hoffman (1963:359) to C. holostomus

Cambarincola heterognatha Hoffman (1963:362) to C. heterognathus

Cambarincola demissa Hoffman (1963:365) to C. demissus

By provision of Article 31 (a) of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the following emendation is required:

Cambarincola osceola Hoffman (1963:330) to C. osceolai
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bibliographic citation
Holt, Perry C. 1973. "A summary of the branchiobdellid (Annelida: Clitellata) fauna of Mesoamerica." Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 1-40. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.00810282.142