875 J. Parasitol., 93(4), 2007, pp. 875–883  American Society of Parasitologists 2007 A COLLECTION OF FISH LEECHES (HIRUDINIDA: PISCICOLIDAE) FROM JAPAN AND SURROUNDING WATERS, INCLUDING REDESCRIPTIONS OF THREE SPECIES Sharon Furiness, Julianne I. Williams, Kazuya Nagasawa*, and Eugene M. Burreson† Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062. e-mail: gene@vims.edu ABSTRACT: Leeches were observed incidentally on fishes in collections made from 1975 to 2006 in Japan and surrounding waters, or from mariculture facilities or public aquaria in Japan. Seven species of leeches in 7 genera were collected—Crango- nobdella maculosa, Johanssonia arctica, Limnotrachelobdella okae, Platybdella olriki, Stibarobdella bimaculata, Taimenobdella amurensis, and Trachelobdella livanovi. The transfer of Calliobdella livanovi to Trachelobdella is supported, and Trachelobdella livanovi and Taimenobdella amurensis are redescribed based on new specimens. Stibarobdella bimaculata is synonymized with Stibarobdella macrothela based on eyes, tubercle patterns, and sucker size ratios. Taimenobdella amurensis, C. maculosa, J. arctica, S. macrothela, and P. olriki are reported for the first time from Japan. New hosts are reported for L. okae, T. livanovi, S. macrothela, C. maculosa, J. arctica, and P. olriki. Stibarobdella moorei was not collected during this study, but a well- preserved specimen collected in Japan was discovered in the Muse ´um National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, and it allowed a redescription of this species. Stibarobdella loricata is synonymized with S. moorei based on tubercle patterns and the presence of papillae and a marginal fringe on the oral sucker. Oka (1910) described 10 new species of marine fish leeches from Japan. Unfortunately, but typical of the time, most of his descriptions were brief, lacked illustrations, and were inade- quate for actually distinguishing or identifying the species in question. Subsequently, Oka (1927a, 1933a) described 2 addi- tional new species and also provided additional morphological data for some species described in 1910 (Oka, 1927b, 1927c, 1927d, 1927e, 1928, 1931, 1933b). In a review of the Japanese leeches in 1965, only 7 marine fish leeches were listed (Oka and Nagao, 1965). The following species described by Oka (1910) were not mentioned in the review: Pontobdella tateja- mensis Oka 1910, Ichthyobdella pagri Oka 1910, Ichthyobdella virgata Oka 1910, Carcinobdella tigrina Oka 1910, and Car- cinobdella bimaculata Oka 1910. It is now known (Epshtein, 1967) that Oka’s I. virgata is a valid species in the genus Hep- tacyclus Vasileyev 1939, but the others are species inquirendae. Table I lists the current status of species Oka described and other fish leeches reported from Japan before the present study. Trachelobdella okae Moore 1924 was described for a leech improperly identified by Oka (1910) as Trachelobdella sinensis Blanchard 1896; this species was transferred to Limnotrache- lobdella Epshtein 1968 by Sawyer (1986). As far as we know, no new species of fish leeches were described from Japan for 70 yr after L. okae (Moore, 1924). In the late 1990s, Ocean- obdella alba Epshtein and Utevsky 1996 was described from marine fishes off the coast of Hokkaido; Cottobdella epshteini Utevsky 1997 was described from the Sea of Japan; and sub- sequently, Rhopalobdella japonica Burreson and Kearn 2000 was described from rays collected off the south coast of Honshu (Epshtein and Utevsky, 1996; Utevsky, 1997; Burreson and Kearn, 2000). The latter species was synonymized with Pter- obdella amara Kaburaki 1921 (Burreson, 2006). Two other spe- cies, Crangonobdella orientalis Utevsky 1999 and Crangonob- della maculosa Utevsky 2005, described from the southern Ku- ril Islands and the Tatar Strait, respectively (Utevsky, 1999, 2005), probably can be expected to occur in northern Japan. Received 23 June 2006; revised 2 February 2007; accepted 8 February 2007. * Laboratory of Aquaculture, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739- 8528, Japan. † To whom correspondence should be addressed. In this article, we report on leeches that were observed in- cidentally on fishes from collections made from 1975 to 2006 in Japan and surrounding waters, or from mariculture facilities or public aquaria in Japan. Emended generic and/or species de- scriptions are provided for Trachelobdella livanovi (Oka, 1910) and Taimenobdella amurensis (Epshtein, 1964) based on new information available from the collections for these species. All leeches in the collection are reported, some representing new records for Japan or new fish hosts for the species. In addition, a specimen of Stibarobdella moorei (Oka, 1910) from Japan was discovered in the Muse ´um National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France, which allowed a redescription of that species. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seven species of leeches were discovered during numerous fish col- lections from Japan and surrounding waters, or from fish mariculture facilities or public aquaria in Japan. Leeches were not collected as part of a systematic survey for fish leeches, they were observed incidentally in collections made for other purposes. Leeches from Tottori Prefectural Fisheries Research Center and Sunpiazza Aquarium were collected by staff members and preserved in 10% formalin without relaxation. Leeches from other locations in Japan, except for T. amurensis, were collected by K.N. Specimens of T. amurensis were collected by Tetsuya Itoh, Hokkaido University, and they were preserved in 10% formalin or 70% ethanol without relaxation. Leeches from Terpenia Bay, Sakha- lin Island, were found on Icelus cataphractus (Pavlenko, 1910) (Cotti- dae) collected by and housed in the Hokkaido Fisheries Experimental Station. These fishes had been preserved in 70% ethanol; leeches were removed from the preserved fish hosts and placed in separate vials of 70% ethanol. The crab Chionoecetes japonicus Rathbun 1932 (Majidae) was collected by the personnel of the Hokkaido Fisheries Experimental Station in a crab pot off Shikabe, Hokkaido; leeches were removed from the carapace and preserved in 10% formalin without relaxation. Specimens of T. livanovi, T. amurensis, C. maculosa, Platybdella olriki Malm 1865, and Johanssonia arctica (Johansson, 1898) were sec- tioned to determine internal anatomy for aid in identification. Specimens were infiltrated with paraffin on an automated tissue processor and em- bedded in paraffin on end in stainless steel tissue molds. Serial trans- verse sections were cut at 5 m on a rotary microtome. Usually, only the clitellar region and first few segments of the urosome were sec- tioned; but in some cases, the entire leech was sectioned. Sections were mounted on glass slides by floating ribbons of sections on a puddle of 2% formalin on slides coated with Szombathy’s affixative. Slides were air-dried in an oven at 42 C overnight, and then they were deparaffinized and stained with hematoxylin and eosin on an automated slide stainer. All sectioned material remains in E.M.B.’s personal collection. All leech specimens, except where noted, have been deposited in the