Miller--Conservation of the Open Bay Islands leech

Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

Conservation of the Open Bay Islands' leech, Hirudobdella antipodum

Craig Miller*

*Department of Conservation, Private Bag 701, Hokitika. cmiller@doc.govt.nz

The terrestrial leech Hirudobdella antipodum is endemic to the Open Bay Islands, south Westland, New Zealand. H. antipodum was thought to be abundant in and around sooty shearwater burrows, but appears to have become severely restricted in abundance and distribution, possibly due to predation by introduced weka. Extensive searches on Taumaka, the largest of the Open Bay Islands, between November 1994 and June 1995 failed to find any remnant populations other than that discovered in 1987. Aspects of the ecology of terrestrial leeches and options for the protection of this species are discussed.

Keywords terrestrial; leech; Hirudobdella antipodum; H. benhami; Ornithobdella edentula; Open Bay Islands

(c) Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand,

Volume 29, Number 4, December 1999, pp 301-306

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (382K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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