Shibabdella Tang & Liu, 2025

Tang, Yan, Liu, Zhixiao, Xiang, Haiyang, Li, Linbei, Li, Shi, Zou, Yazhen & Nakano, Takafumi, 2025, A new genus of non-bloodsucking aquatic cave leeches in the family Salifidae Johansson, 1909 (Erpobdelliformes) from the Wuling Mountains of Central China, Zoosystematics and Evolution 101 (3), pp. 1113-1122 : 1113-1122

Genus Shibabdella Tang & Liu gen. nov.

Diagnosis.

Non – bloodsucking aquatic leech. Medium-sized, lacking spots and stripes. One myognath at the anterior end of each pharyngeal ridge. Accessory copulatory pores absent. Atrium spherical, without pre-atrial loop. Ovisacs reverse-folded. Gonopores separated by six annuli, with male gonopore in somite XII c 2 / c 3 and female gonopore in somite XII c 11 / c 12. Nephridiopores: fifteen pairs. Post-anal annuli present.

Remarks.

Shibabdella gen. nov. belongs to the family Salifidae because it lacks a pre-atrial loop and has a myognath at the anteriority in each of three pharyngeal ridges. Compared to the genera Barbronia and Dineta , which have one pair of accessory copulatory pores and three pairs of eyespots, this new genus lacks accessory copulatory pores and eyespots. Compared to the genera Odontobdella and Sinodontobdella , which have blocky coiled ovisacs and three pairs of large columnar pharyngeal stylets, Shibabdella gen. nov. has reverse-folded ovisacs and lamellar myognaths. Compared to the genus Salifa , which has gastropores and a pair of conspicuous genital atrium, this new genus has the nephridiopores and lacks the obvious angle of genital atrium. Moreover, because the ovisacs of Shibabdella gen. nov. reach somite XXI and the diameter of caudal sucker is approximately the maximum body width, it is different from ovisacs of Mimobdella , which are as long as somite XXII and the diameter of caudal sucker is only half of the maximum body width.