Collection of Hirudinea submitted by F.M. Chutter (national institute for water research, Pretoria) and the geographical distribution of Hirudinea in South Africa

Abstract

The leeches collected from the Vaal Barrage and from the streams and rivers of the Vaal dam Catchment Barrage by F.andM. from Chutter, which I have just studied, constitute a collection of 121 specimens. I sincerely thank Mr F. M. Chutter for having entrusted the determination of the specimens to me. The specimens have all been recorded in a catalogue of the freshwater invertebrate fauna collected by the National Institute for Water Research and the catalogue numbers of the specimens (code lettered Val) are given under each species. Two specimens come from a catalogue coded M.P. Little is as yet known of the leech fauna of South Africa and the pro cessing of all the material was not an easy task. The collection comprises ten species, seven of which belong to the Glossiphoniidae, a family with very small specimens, a few millimetres in size