{"id":119354,"date":"2026-02-16T13:08:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&p=119354"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:08:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:08:55","slug":"expanding-the-reach-of-turtle-leeches","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/expanding-the-reach-of-turtle-leeches\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding the Reach of (Turtle) Leeches"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you look close enough at the shell of a turtle, you might discover something you didn’t expect. Placobdella ali<\/em> is a species of North American leech known to parasitize freshwater turtles, most often the common snapping turtle. The species was originally described in 2007 from specimens collected at Silver Mine Lake in New York and soon found in nearby southern New England and New Jersey.<\/p>\n

A new study shows the species can be found in southern states as well, from North Carolina\u2019s Turnipseed Nature Preserve to Georgia\u2019s Dry Prong Creek, and elsewhere. In fact, study collaborators \u2014 including Head of the Museum\u2019s Non-Molluscan Invertebrate Research Lab Dr. Bronwyn Williams \u2014 reported an expansion of the species\u2019 known range by eight states, more than quadrupling its previously known distribution.<\/p>\n

To accomplish this, Williams and colleagues re-examined museum specimens stored in the collections of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the National Museum of Natural History, some almost 100 years old. They pored through research-grade iNaturalist observations. They collected free-living leech specimens by hand from underneath submerged debris including branches, logs and leaves. They also collected leeches from living turtles, a popular source of blood meals for P. ali<\/em>, through several years of extensive survey efforts in Wake County led by Dr. Ivana Mali\u2019s research lab at NC State.<\/p>\n

Abigail Conklin, a PhD student in Mali\u2019s lab in the genetics and genomics program at NC State and lead author of the paper, points out that identifying such an expansion in range doesn\u2019t mean these leeches suddenly dispersed to the south, it\u2019s just that they weren\u2019t described until 2007. So reclassification of previously collected specimens, as well as a better-informed look at new specimens, were both in play.<\/p>\n

But why study leeches at all? \u201cWe know that parasites play an important role in the ecosystem,\u201d Conklin says. \u201cWe know they occur all over the planet and yet we know so little about them. We\u2019ll never know unless we take the time to investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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