Leiochrides yokjidoensissp. n., collected from the sublittoral muddy bottom in southern Korea, is described as a new species. The taxonomic status of the monospecific genus Pseudomastus has been a subject of controversy for many years, as its characteristics overlap those given in recent generic definitions of Leiochrides. The results of a comprehensive review and comparison regarding the two g...

ht-en protein, an annelid homolog of the Drosophila engrailed protein, is expressed during both early development and neurogenesis in embryos of the leech, Helobdella triserialis. In Helobdella as in Drosophila, early expression is in segmentally iterated stripes of cells within the posterior portion of the segment and later expression is in cells of the segmental ganglia. These findings sugges...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.422.7501.].

I can agree in part with these educators. There certainly is a lot of material taught in traditional biology courses for which it is hard to see relevance. After all, who needs to know about the ecosystem of an ocean reef, or the relationships among various segmented worms, or how plants convert sunlight energy and carbon dioxide into sugars? Having to spend time learning these seemingly irrele...

We herein present the first taxonomic account on the genera Amblyosyllis, Brevicirrosyllis, Eusyllis and Opisthodonta from Brazilian waters, with the description of Eusyllis nonatoi sp. nov. The new species is characterized by having transverse dark stripes on dorsum, unidentate, relatively short falciger blades with inverted dorso-ventral gradation in length, and distally rounded to inconspicu...

We estimated the phylogenetic relationships of 15 nemertean (phylum Nemertea) species from the four subclasses Hoplo-, Hetero-, Palaeo-, and Bdellonemertea with 18S rDNA sequence data. Three outgroup taxa were used for rooting: Annelida, Platyhelminthes, and Mollusca. Parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses supported the monophyletic status of the Heteronemertea and a taxon consisting of hopl...

Real worms don't eat bacteria. Leeches are segmented, eucoelomate worms of the phylum Annelida, distinguished from other annelids by anterior and posterior suckers used for locomotion and feeding — on blood or soft body parts of other animals. They are not to be confused with nematodes, which lack these (and most other) features. Leeches are mainly aquatic, but the Asian land leeches are well k...

The infection by Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparède, 1862 (Oligochaeta: Tubificinae) in humans is relatively uncommon. The present report is to describe an incidental human infection with oligochaetes in the nasal cavity of a Chinese man, a 25-year-old man residing in Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province, China presenting with nose bleed, severe itching, continuous sneezing, and rhinorrhea. A lot o...

The proteome of most parasite species is currently unknown. Hairworms (Nematomorpha), 300 species distributed around the world, are parasitic in arthropods (mainly terrestrial species) when juveniles, but they are free-living in aquatic environments when adult. Most aspects of their systematics and biology are currently unknown. The aim of this paper was (i) to report a novel and reproducible p...

Leeches are segmented worms belonging to Phylum Annelida and make up the subclass Hirudinea. Leeches have been historically used in medicine to suck blood from patients. Ocular infestation with leech is rare, moreover it is often misdiagnosed. In this report, we describe 2 patients with continuous bright ocular bleeding after swimming in a pool, and pseudo iris prolapse in a child after trauma ...