Xerobdellidae

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Xerobdellidae are a small family of "jawed leeches". The latter might be (but probably are not) a natural, monophyletic group of hirudiniform proboscisless leeches. Xerobdellidae have three jaws and five pairs of eyes, the fourth and fifth being separated by one or two eyeless segments. One each of the mere three genera placed herein occurs in Chile (Mesobdella) and Europe (Xerobdella). Diestecostoma is more widespread and found in Central and northern South America. This peculiar distribution strongly suggests they are a relict Pangaean group, which had already been present by the start of the Jurassic 250 million years ago. These leeches resemble the Haemadipsidae and were included there by many authors, but this has always been controversial.