Torix is a genus of Rhynchobdellid leeches in the family Glossiphoniidae, found in Eastern Asia and Japan.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Rana japonica, the Japanese brown frog, is the main host of T. tagoi.[8]
Rickettsia bacterial infection
Two members of the genus, T. tagoi and T. tukubana, show high percentages of Rickettsia infection in the wild; 96% and 83% respectively, according to a 2003 study.[8] Eggs of T. tagoi were found to all contain the bacteria, indicating the bacteria is almost always passed on to the next generation (vertical transmission).[8] It was found that infected leeches grew far larger than those uninfected with the bacteria.[8] Another paper concluded that the Rickettsia that acted as endosymbionts in the leeches represented a separate clade of Rickettsia, named the torix clade.[9][10] As T. tagoi feeds on the blood of amphibians such as frogs and newts, it is possible that those amphibians were the route of horizontal transmission.[9]
Species
Photo of a leech, probably a member of the genus
Torix, on a frog of the
Rana genus uploaded from iNaturalist.
The number of species the genus contains is somewhat disputed between taxonomic databases and scientific papers.
Torix baicalensis was moved to the genus Glossiphonia.[12]
References
-
^ "Genus Torix". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ "ADW: Torix: CLASSIFICATION". animaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ Zicha, Ondrej. "BioLib: Biological library". www.biolib.cz. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ taxonomy. "Taxonomy browser (Torix)". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ "Torix Blanchard, 1893". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Torix Blanchard, 1893". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ "NZOR Name Details - Torix". www.nzor.org.nz. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
-
^ a b c d Kikuchi; Fukatsu (30 June 2003). "Rickettsia Infection in Natural Leech Populations". Microbial Ecology. 49 (2): 265–271. doi:10.1007/s00248-004-0140-5. S2CID 9375808 – via ResearchGate.
-
^ a b Kikuchi, Yoshitomo; Sameshima, Shinya; Kitade, Osamu; Kojima, Junichi; Fukatsu, Takema (Feb 2002). "Novel Clade of Rickettsia spp. from Leeches". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 68 (2): 999–1004. doi:10.1128/AEM.68.2.999-1004.2002. ISSN 0099-2240. PMC 126704. PMID 11823253.
-
^ taxonomy. "Taxonomy browser (Rickettsia endosymbiont of Torix tukubana)". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
-
^ a b c d e f Sasaki, Akio (2015). "First Record of Torix tagoi（Oka, 1925）in Yamanashi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture" (PDF). Natural History of the Tokai District (in Japanese) (8): 5–8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 Oct 2022. [This genus has 7 species (T. mirus Blanchard，1893- T. baicalensis Schegolev, 1922- T. cotylifer Blanchard, 1898- T. orientalis (Oka, 1925) ・ T. tagoi (Oka, 1925) - T. tukubana (Oka, 1935) ・ T. novazealandiae (Dendy and Olliver, 1925). (Sawyer, 1986).]
-
^ a b c d e f Kambayashi, Chiaki; Kurabayashi, Atsushi; Nakano, Takafumi (2020-08-11). "Topotype-based redescription of the leech Torix tukubana (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniiformes: Glossiphoniidae)". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 133 (1): 59. doi:10.2988/20-00003. ISSN 0006-324X.
