Observations of Cocoon Deposition, Emergence, and Feeding in Philobdella floridana (Verrill)

Anna J. Phillips; Bronwyn W. Williams; Alvin L. Braswell

doi:10.1656/058.017.0418

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1 January 2018 Observations of Cocoon Deposition, Emergence, and Feeding in Philobdella floridana (Verrill)

Anna J. Phillips, Bronwyn W. Williams, Alvin L. Braswell

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Southeastern Naturalist, 17(4): (2018). https://doi.org/10.1656/058.017.0418

Abstract

Philobdella floridana, a species of leech in the family Macrobdellidae, occupies a broad, yet seemingly patchy, distribution in the Piedmont and Atlantic Coastal Plain regions of the southeastern US. A recent collection of an adult P. floridana from North Carolina gave us a unique opportunity to observe several poorly understood, and previously mischaracterized, aspects of the ecology of the species, including cocoon deposition, emergence of young from cocoons, and feeding behavior. In addition, we provide new records of P. floridana, extending its known distribution northward in both the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. Our observations provide important insight into the reproduction, diet, and habitat of a widespread yet little understood leech species.

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Anna J. Phillips, Bronwyn W. Williams, and Alvin L. Braswell "Observations of Cocoon Deposition, Emergence, and Feeding in Philobdella floridana (Verrill)," Southeastern Naturalist 17(4), (1 January 2018). https://doi.org/10.1656/058.017.0418

Published: 1 January 2018

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