Piscicolidae
The Piscicolidae are a family of jawless leeches in the order Rhynchobdellida that are parasitic on fish. They occur in both freshwater and seawater, have cylindrical bodies, and typically have a large, bell-shaped, anterior sucker with which they cling to their host. Some of the leeches in this family have external gills, outgrowths of the body wall projecting laterally, the only group of leeches to exchange gases in this way.
Worldwide, around 60 genera and 100 species of leeches are in this family, all parasitic on the blood of marine, estuarine, and freshwater fishes. These leeches are less common in the tropics, and more abundant in temperate and polar waters.
14 branches of this family, most-observed first
Platybdellinae
subfamilyPlatybdellinae
Piscicolinae
subfamilyPiscicolinae
Ray Leeches
genusBranchellion
Pontobdellinae
subfamilyPontobdellinae
Gonimosobdella
genusGonimosobdella
Calliobdella
genusCalliobdella
Janusion
genusJanusion
Cystobranchus
genusCystobranchus
Richardsonobdella
genusRichardsonobdella
Limnotrachelobdella
genusLimnotrachelobdella
Austrobdella
genusAustrobdella
Johanssonia
genusJohanssonia
Alexandrobdella
genusAlexandrobdella
Bdellamaris
genusBdellamaris
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Piscicolidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 171276.