Morphological and molecular description of parasitic leeches (Annelida: Hirudinea) isolated from rice field of Bandar Anzali, North of Iran

The current study was performed to determine Hirudinea species diversity collected from rice fields of Guilan province from June 2012 to June 2020. This study reports the most recent information on leech species (Annelida, Clitellata) in this region. Morphological characters and DNA barcode analysis were used to identify the collected samples. According to the acquired results, there were two leech families in this zone (Glossiphoniidae and Hirundinidae). Based on morphological criteria 5 species of leech including Hirudo orientalis, Hirudo medicinalis, Hirudo verbana, Helobdella stagnalis and Placobdella costata belonging to 3 genera were identified. For the first time, Hirudo verbana which predominantly bred in leech farms and used as medicinal leech from southeastern Europe and Turkey, was reported in our study. The knowledge on leech fauna in Iran is incomplete. Therefore, more comparative studies based on molecular and morphological techniques should be conducted on different regions. This study was performed to identify the distribution of Hirudinida from Bandar Anzali's wetland of Guilan province, Iran using genetic sequence assessment.