Turtle leech
genus of leeches
Turtle leeches are a genus, Ozobranchus, of leeches (Hirudinea) that feed exclusively on the blood of turtles. Only two species—Ozobranchus margoi and Ozobranchus branchiatus—are found in the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. Little is known about these leeches due to difficulties in studying their sea turtle hosts.
Physiology
Species of Ozobranchus spp. can be very small (down to a few millimeters in length), making them morphologically difficult to distinguish. Ozobranchus margoi and Ozobranchus branchiatus are the most anatomically documented. According to researchers from the University of Wales and the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Mississippi, the two species are very similar externally with their main difference being the number of pairs of finger-shaped gills; Ozobranchus margoi has 5 pairs while Ozobranchus branchiatus has 7. Both possess a light or slightly pink coloration and sometimes dark spots form from ingested blood visible through the epidermis. Ozobranchus branchiatus range generally from 3.5–10 mm, while Ozobranchus margoi generally range from 4–22 mm. The body is composed primarily of two unequal annuli.
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This entry incorporates text from “Turtle leech” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.