Phytobdella catenifera
Phytobdella catenifera is a large terrestrial leech found in Peninsular Malaysia. John Percy Moore chose this species’ epithet ‘catenifera’ after the striking chain-striped pattern on the creature's back.
Range and ecology
In 1935, the then curator of the Raffles Museum, Michael Tweedie, collected the type specimen among 23 of its kin on a brown tortoise Manouria emys. The type locality is Gunung Pulai in Johore and there is one record from Gabai Falls in Selangor. 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 from Papua New Guinea is thought to be zoonotic.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 Region, with P. catenifera being found only in Peninsular Malaysia and other species being found in the Philippines, the Moluccas and Papua New Guinea. A possible sixth species, as yet unidentified, has been found in Laos.