In the past, leeches of Slovenia have been documented through species lists, individual
records and studies, however, the complete fauna of Slovenian leeches has never been
comprehensively addressed. By systematically organizing data from published sources,
received data lists, and by morphologically identifying specimens from a reference
collection, we compiled a set of reliable data that enabled the preparation of distribution
maps of leeches in Slovenia. The analyzed data improves our understanding of the
distribution of leeches in Slovenia, their diversity, ecology, as well as their rarity and
conservation status. A total of 1,470 analyzed records cover 672 different localities and
55 taxa, including 37 species. The species belong to seven families: Glossiphoniidae,
Piscicolidae, Haemopidae, Hirudinidae, Xerobdellidae, Erpobdellidae, and Salifidae.
Most species are freshwater, two are marine, and four are terrestrial. The highest density
of records occurs in central, southwestern, and northeastern Slovenia, where the greatest
species diversity was also recorded. Areas where leeches have not yet been detected are
few: part of southern Slovenia, a small area northwest of Ljubljana, and the region
between central and northeastern Slovenia. Among the 37 species recorded, 30 are
already confirmed in Slovenia. In addition, seven species were newly recorded for
Slovenia, including four European species and three undescribed species.
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