Form Three Leech Suckers And Jaw And Value Classification

Leech (hirudo) is the general name for hirudinea of annelida. Leech has a long used history as traditional medicine, the mechanism contains anticoagulant, reduce blood stasis, antineoplastic and hypolipidemic. Chinese pharmacopoeia2010edition records three leeches of haemopidae in hirudinea., hirudo nipponia, Witmania acranulata and Whitmania pigra.Whitmania Blanchard is a part of haemopidae in hirudinea. At present, five species have been recoreded, Whitmania pigra is used very commom in traditional chinese medicine, Whitmania laevis is similar to Whitmania pigra, but it is not recorded in pharmacopoeia. they are often considered a synonym in taxonomy. In addition, artificial breeding is very common for Whitmania pigra and it is alike Whitmania laevis, but they are difficult to distinguish and always put them together for breeding, It causes some problems of grow slowly and not achieve the desired effect in breeding process and causes economic losses. So, it is very important for animal taxonomy to clarify they are different species or synonym, not only provides the basis of accurate medication in traditional chinese medicine, but also provides a good theoretical guidance for leech breeding.In this paper, the controversial Whitmania laevis and Whitmania pigra in Whitmania Blanchard are reviewed and compared with Whitmania acranulata, the specimens were collected in Shaanxi province, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou province, Hubei province, Hunan province, Guangxi province and Sichuan province, next, the specimens were identified and classified and selected some representatives from them for comparing study.From geometric morphometric analysis, the anterior sucker and posterior sucker of three species in Whitmania Blanchard are research subjects. Three points were choosed on the anterior sucker and four on the poeterior sucker, so the outline of sucker will be geted, then cluster analysis was used to construct a dendrogram and geted centroid size. From SPSS18.0, the body length and the area of anterior and posterior sucker in Whitmania Blanchard were measured, body length and the area of sucker were analysed by scatter plot, the mean centroid size of sucker was analysed by box plot. From anatomy, the anterior suckers of specimens were dissected, the jaws of three species were compared by Olympus SXZ12stereo microscope and ESEM. The experimental results are as follows:1、The body length and the area of anterior and posterior sucker in Whitmania Blanchard has a corresponding relationship.The result of scatter plot about the body length and the area of sucker shows:with the continuous growth of the body length, the area of sucker increases accordingly. Each species have their own independent relationship and R2>0.5, so the diagram is meaningful. The difference is obvious about the relationship of body length and the area of sucker, supporting the result that Whitmania laevis and Whitmania pigra are different species.2、The form of anterior sucker and posterior sucker is stable in intraspecific, but the difference is obvious in interspecific, so the characterior can be used classification.The anterior sucker and posterior suckers are analysed by box plot, the result shows that the difference is obvious in three species. The mean centroid size of suckers in Whitmania pigra is maximum, Whitmania acranulata is minimum and Whitmania laevis is center. The suckers are analysed by clustering, the result shows that Whitmania laevis and Whitmania pigra basically alone gather in together, but they are together in some place, the result may be due to the difference of region and environmental factors. In general, the form of suckers are stable and can be used classification.3、The morphology comparative study on the jaws of three leech species of the genus Whitmania Blanchard and the relation with feeding habits.The result of anatomy from oral cavity in three species shows, the jaws in different species have stable character and show triangular arrangement. In this study, from the figure of ESEM can show the relationship between jaws and feefing habits, the jaws of Whitmania pigra are advanced with two lines of tooth plates on the surface, but the jaws are degraded in Whitmania laevis and Whitmania acranulata. in addition, whether the characters of blunt tooth or no tooth plates affect the feature of not blood-sucking need to further studies.4、The morphological differences of jaws in three species can provide a new basis for classification of leech.In this study, the jaws of oral cavity are compared and three species are separated. The morphological characters of the jaws are stable and not affected by external factors, the jaws have obvious differences in different species. So the characters can provide a criteria of classification and a new basis for classification of leech.