Torix (annelid)

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]

This article is about the leech genus. For the Canadian stock exchange, see TORIX.

Torix
T. cotylifer. The scale bar is equal to 1 millimetre (0.039 in)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Annelida
Class:
Clitellata
Subclass:
Hirudinea
Order:
Rhynchobdellida
Family:
Glossiphoniidae
Genus:
Torix

Blanchard, 1893
Type species
Torix mirus
Blanchard, 1893
Species
disputed, see text
Synonyms
  • Oligoclepsis Oka, 1935

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 cotylifer Blanchard, 1898[11][12]
  • Torix mirus Blanchard, 1893 [11][12]
  • Torix novazealandiae (Dendy & Olliver, 1900) [11]
  • Torix orientalis (Oka, 1925) [11][12]
  • Torix tagoi (Oka, 1925)[11][12]
  • Torix tukubana (Oka, 1935) [11][12]

Torix baicalensis was moved to the genus Glossiphonia.[12]

References
  1. "Genus Torix". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  2. "ADW: Torix: CLASSIFICATION". animaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  3. Zicha, Ondrej. "BioLib: Biological library". www.biolib.cz. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  4. taxonomy. "Taxonomy browser (Torix)". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  5. "Torix Blanchard, 1893". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  6. "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Torix Blanchard, 1893". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  7. "NZOR Name Details - Torix". www.nzor.org.nz. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. taxonomy. "Taxonomy browser (Rickettsia endosymbiont of Torix tukubana)". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  11. 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).]
  12. 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.


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