Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 59. (Budapest 1967)

Soós, Á.: On the genus Batracobdella Viguier, 1879, with a key and catalogue to the species (Hirudinoidea: Glossiphoniidae)

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALES HUNGARICI Tomas 59. PARS ZOOLOGICA 1967. On the Genus Batracobdella Yiguier, 1879, with a Key and Catalogue to the Species (Hirudinoidea: Glossiphoniidae) By Ä. Soós, Budapest In the present paper I intend to discuss the genus Batracobdella, on the same considerations as those concerning the genus Glossiphonia treated in the preceding volume of this journal (58, p. 271—279). The genus Batracobdella was established by VIGUIER in 1879 for his new species latasti (and not latastii). The description of the genus had been published, in the same year, in French and later also in English, and since the generic name was written in two different versions in the two papers, authors, indeed, occasionally the same author, use alternately both. Since the first description, in French, had been published earlier, in July 1879, with the spelling, Batracobdella, this is the valid one, despite the more correct. Batrachobdella, published in September, 1879. BLANCHARD had shown later (1893, p. 7—12) that VIGUIER'S species, latasti, is not a new species but a junior synonym of Glossiphonia algira MOQITLN-TANDON, 1846, hence this latter is to be regarded as the type-species of the genus. The oldest known species belonging to the genus is Hirudo paludosa, described by CARENA in 1824. Since the organisation of this species is still far from being adequately known, I had studied it rather thoroughly. I intend to submit my results in a separate paper, together with the comparative anatomy of the known species of the genus. With respect to the species, I wish to remark only that I have omitted from the Key and Catalogue, given below, the species verrucata FR. MÜLLER, 1844, phalera GRAF, 1899, and picta VERILL, 1872, since they have recently been reallocated by MOORE (1958) and MANN (1961) to the genus Batracobdella. I contend, namely, that verrucata still belongs to the genus Boreobdella JOHANSSON, 1929, (approved by MANN as late as 1953), while the two latter species are reassigned to Placobdella BLANCHARD, 1893 (emend. AUTRUM, 1936). The present paper deviates insofar from the earlier one, discussing Glossiphonia JOHNSON, 1816, that it also contains figures of all 16 species relegated to the genus. If the figure is not original or taken from the literature but merely a sketchy reconstruction based on the description, the serial number of the figure is marked by an asterisk.