Poecilobdella kananbalaae: A New Species of Leech from Karnataka, India
C. K. Mandal
*
Zoological Survey of India, F.P.S. Building, 27, J. L Nehru Road, Kolkata-700016, India.
S. Mridha
Zoological Survey of India, F.P.S. Building, 27, J. L Nehru Road, Kolkata-700016, India.
P. Sharma
Zoological Survey of India, F.P.S. Building, 27, J. L Nehru Road, Kolkata-700016, India.
M. Bose
Zoological Survey of India, F.P.S. Building, 27, J. L Nehru Road, Kolkata-700016, India.
N. Hassan
Zoological Survey of India, F.P.S. Building, 27, J. L Nehru Road, Kolkata-700016, India.
A. Sachi
Ayurvedic Institution, Rajasthan, India.
S. Ghosh
School of Biological Science, NISER, Bhubaneswar-752050, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
There are more than 721 species of leeches (Annelida: Hirudinea) in the world. India has 84 different species. Only 6 species have been identified of Poecilobdella genus (Poecilobdella granulosa Savigny, 1820, Poecilobdella manilensis Lesson, 1924, Poecilobdella javanica Wahlberg, 1856, Poecilobdella viridis Moore, 1927 and Poecilobdella aligarhensis Mandal et al., 2021. Poecilobdella tarubalaae Mandal, et al., 2025. This research will establish a new leech species, Poecilobdella kananbalaae, which was collected from Ulsoor lake in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Keywords: Annelida, new leech, Poecilobdella kananbalaae, Karnataka, India