Hirudo


Hirudo is a genus of leeches of the family Hirudinidae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
The two well-accepted species within the genus are:
  • Hirudo medicinalis Linnaeus, 1758
  • Hirudo nipponia Whitman, 1886
Three other species, previously synonymized with H. medicinalis, were described in 2005 and are gaining acceptance:
  • Hirudo verbana
  • Hirudo orientalis
  • Hirudo sulukii
  • Hirudo troctina
  • ''Hirudo tianjinensis''

    Description

Species are typically exterior feeders. They have jaws that typically consist of about 60 teeth and do not possess papillae.

Distribution

Hirudo medicinalis: Britain and southern Norway to the southern Urals, probably as far as the Altai Mountains

Hirudo verbana: Switzerland and Italy to Turkey and Uzbekistan

Hirudo orientalis: Transcaucasian countries, Iran, and Central Asia

Hirudo sulukii: Kara Lake of Adiyaman, Sülüklü Lake of Gaziantep and Segirkan wetland of Batman in Turkey

Hirudo troctina: North-western Africa and Spain

Hirudo nipponia: East Asia, including Far East district in Russian, Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan

Hirudo tianjinensis: China
Hirudo verbana is further divided into nonoverlapping eastern and western phylogroups.

Medical use

While H. medicinalis has long been used in hirudotherapy, and is approved by the US FDA as a prescription medical device, a 2007 study employing genetic analysis found that the species being marketed as H. medicinalis, possibly for decades, was the recently distinguished H. verbana.

Conservation status

A 2010 study of data gathered four species proposed an IUCN status of near threatened for H. medicinalis, H. verbana, and H. orientalis, and a status of data deficient for H. troctina.